Chapter 125 Did We Take A Wrong Turn?!!

Guided by the Aeldari Farseer Eldrad, Vane and the crew took their warship deep into the void, far past the galactic rim. After a few days of travel, a colossal metallic Dyson Sphere fully encapsulating a star came into view.

In front of the megastructure, their warship didn’t even qualify as a speck of dust. The thing was just too massive, so absurdly large it defied the limits of mortal engineering.

A short distance from the Dyson Sphere, two Wraithbone cruisers were on patrol. Spotting the human warship, they immediately moved in to intercept. Eldrad broadcasted his identity, getting the Aeldari cruisers to stand down. He also got a quick sitrep on The Outsider’s current status from their captains.

Ever since The Outsider, Tsara’noga, locked itself in that prison, it hadn’t stepped foot outside once. Not too long ago, a Tyranid Hive Fleet had actually passed by. The observing Aeldari fully expected The Outsider to emerge, but it didn’t even stir. The Hive Fleet had clearly sensed exactly how terrifying the entity trapped inside the megastructure was. Realizing a fight would cost them an astronomical amount of biomass for absolutely zero nutritional payoff, the Tyranids decided it wasn’t worth the trouble and simply detoured around it.

With the intel gathered, Vane and his group breached the Dyson Sphere to hunt down The Outsider, Tsara’noga.

The entire Dyson Sphere was forged from pitch-black necrodermis. It was monolithic and imposing. Overlapping orbital rings and massive support struts layered over each other like mechanical tree rings, completely caging the star inside and greedily siphoning its raw energy to power itself.

Even the smallest of the hollow transit corridors connecting different sectors was wide enough for dozens of battleships to fly through side-by-side. Walking through it, it was incredibly easy to feel overwhelmingly insignificant, marveling at the sheer, mind-boggling scale of the metallic megastructure.

Along the way, they spotted Canoptek Scarabs and other Necron constructs tirelessly maintaining the facility, repairing the Dyson Sphere and keeping everything fully operational.

After spending a fair amount of time and effort navigating the maze, they discovered a grand, obsidian temple deep within the core of the megastructure. Stellar energy flowed through power conduits carved with glowing Necrontyr glyphs, pouring directly into the temple. The sheer volume of surging power caused every rune on the temple walls to pulse with a toxic, oily green light.

“I can sense The Outsider’s presence. It is inside,” the Void Dragon said. “Tsara’noga is still in deep slumber. If we rudely interrupt its rest, it is highly likely to become enraged and attack us.”

“So what? You expect me to wait for it to wake up naturally, send it a formal invitation, and negotiate with a smile?”

Vane strode right into the grand temple. “What are you even thinking? I’m going to shake it awake right now and ask if it wants to join the Imperium of Man. If it dares to say no, I’ll just beat its ass until it ‘voluntarily’ decides to join.”

The interior of the temple was incredibly vast, closely resembling a grand mausoleum. The floors, walls, and ceiling were completely covered in Necrontyr glyphs, all of them currently giving off a faint, eerie glow. Winding stairs descended one after another, connecting to a ringed corridor that circled a massive central hall—a space so ridiculously huge you could easily park several Imperial battleships inside.

Hovering in the dead center of the hall was a colossal black metallic throne. Seated upon it was an entity forged entirely from silver-white metal. Its appearance bore a passing resemblance to a human or an Aeldari, but with much sharper, more angular features. It had an elongated, gaunt face, and its limbs felt uncomfortably thin and stretched out. A crown sat upon its head, and a scepter rested nearby. Heavy shackles bound its wrists and ankles, connected to thick chains that vanished deep into the floorboards.

“The Outsider, Tsara’noga,” Trazyn said, his voice dropping an octave as he stared at the being on the throne. As a veteran who had survived the entirety of the War in Heaven, there was no way Trazyn would ever forget the god who had devoured the souls of countless Necrontyr.

“I can sense it waking up,” the Void Dragon chimed in.

“Hey, Big E,” Vane said, turning to the Emperor. “You hear that? Once it fully wakes up, it’s going to be a pain in the ass to fight.”

“You want me to deal with this C’tan??” The Emperor, who had been completely silent up until now, pointed a finger at himself.

“What, you expect me to get my own hands dirty?” Vane raised an eyebrow. “Don’t forget your place here. I’m your creditor. If you put on a good show, I might just knock a little off your interest rate.”

“Fine.” A flash of utter helplessness crossed the Emperor’s eyes. I only tagged along to watch the show and eat popcorn. Why am I the one doing the heavy lifting?

Sensing intruders entering its prison, Tsara’noga had barely opened its eyes before a massive, glowing golden human came charging straight at it like a runaway freight train.

Before it could even process what was happening, Tsara’noga was sent flying by a brutal punch. Its massive body was launched off the throne, slamming into the far wall like an artillery shell with a deafening thud.

The Emperor reached out with a gigantic psychic hand, grabbed Tsara’noga by its metallic ankle, and started violently slamming it left and right into the floor.

Bang! Bang!

The deafening crashes of the Star God’s body cratering the metallic ground echoed endlessly. After ragdolling it for a solid minute, the Emperor wound up and hurled Tsara’noga into the wall again, producing another sickening crunch.

The Outsider struggled to its feet. It was just about to explode in a divine rage and demand the intruder’s name when the glowing golden human rushed it again. A massive psychic palm slammed it face-first into the floor. Then, grabbing it by the leg once more, the Emperor hoisted the C’tan into the air and began mercilessly thrashing it against the ground.

Bang! Bang!

The Emperor threw everything in his playbook at it, giving Tsara’noga the absolute beating of a lifetime.

Tsara’noga desperately tried to fight back, but the power gap between it and the Emperor was just too massive. Any energy beams it managed to fire off were casually swatted away by the Master of Mankind, and it was completely outmatched in raw physical strength, getting knocked flying with every single punch.

The beating was so severe it actually had Tsara’noga questioning its own existence. How in the hell was a body forged from necrodermis losing a fistfight to a creature of flesh and blood? It was absolutely absurd.

Hoisted into the air and piledriven into the floor yet again, Tsara’noga lay broken in a crater, completely unable to get back up. Even a body of living steel couldn’t handle getting manhandled like this!

Seeing that the C’tan had stopped twitching, Vane finally strolled over, using telepathy to speak directly into its mind.

“So, how about it? Have you thought things through yet?”

A massive string of question marks practically popped up over Tsara’noga’s metallic forehead.

“Thought what through?!”

“You people just barged in and started beating the crap out of me! You never even asked a question!”

Vane blinked in surprise and turned to look at the Emperor. “You didn’t ask?”

“You just told me to beat him up! You never said anything else.” The Emperor threw his hands up defensively. “This one isn’t on me. You can’t use this as an excuse to dock my pay.”

Listening to the two of them bicker, Tsara’noga completely lost the will to live.

You didn’t even try to communicate before jumping straight to assault and battery! What is wrong with you people?!

Vane turned back to the Star God sprawled on the floor.

“Alright, let’s keep it simple. You have two choices. Option one: you join the Imperium of Man. Option two: we keep beating the absolute brakes off you until you decide to join the Imperium of Man.”

“Tsara’noga. It has been a while,” the miniaturized Void Dragon said, poking its head out to say hello.

“Mag’ladroth??” Tsara’noga looked genuinely shocked. “Why are you with them??”

“I have already joined the Imperium of Man,” the Void Dragon replied.

Tsara’noga was just about to mock the Void Dragon for actually submitting to a lesser species, but then it remembered the absolute thrashing it had just received. The insult died on its tongue.

“Made up your mind yet? Which option is it going to be?” Vane asked, staring down at Tsara’noga again.

The Emperor stepped forward, his body flaring with golden light, fully prepared to resume the beatdown until the C’tan threw in the towel.

“Fine, I agree to join the Imperium of Man.”

Seeing the Emperor gear up for round two, Tsara’noga genuinely panicked. Even a Star God couldn’t survive being ragdolled like this. A few more hits, and they would literally shatter it to pieces.

“See? Was that so hard?” Vane gestured for the Emperor to power down and step to the back.

The Emperor grumbled internally. I am the Master of Mankind, and he’s treating me like hired muscle. This is humiliating!

Now that Tsara’noga had surrendered, Vane originally planned to just drag the guy along with them. Having another C’tan on a leash would make dealing with the Silent King and the rest of the Necron Overlords a lot easier.

“I cannot leave this place,” Tsara’noga said, sounding deeply conflicted. “This temple helps suppress the maddening whispers of the shards within me, keeping me from losing my mind. The moment I step foot outside, the shards will drive me completely insane.”

“That’s barely an inconvenience.” Vane waved him off. He casually whipped out a furnace, tossed the C’tan in, and extracted the offending shards right out of its body, completely curing its schizophrenia on the spot.

“It’s… fixed??”

Tsara’noga couldn’t believe it. It wasn’t until it stepped completely out of the temple and felt absolutely zero maddening whispers from dead Star Gods that it finally accepted reality.

“Who in the void is this guy? How did he separate the shards from my body so effortlessly?” Tsara’noga secretly whispered to the Void Dragon, trying to get some intel on Vane.

“He claims to be a traveler from beyond this universe. His strength is completely and utterly broken,” the Void Dragon said, its voice dripping with bitterness. “Look at me. A majestic Star God, reduced to a literal pet. I’ve lost all my dignity, and I don’t even dare fight back.”

Tsara’noga went silent. It suddenly foresaw its own tragic future! To think that proud, mighty Star Gods would end up in such a miserable state.

—

After forcibly recruiting The Outsider, Tsara’noga, into the Imperium of Man, Vane packed up the Emperor and the rest of the crew and set a course back to the galaxy, heading straight for the Nephilim Sector in the Ultima Segmentum. The Silent King was currently out there building his Pariah Nexus, and Vane intended to stick to the plan and deal with him once and for all.

Not long after Vane left, a Tyranid Hive Fleet arrived at the Eastern Fringe, only to slam face-first into the daemon-fueled living wall.

Staring up at the boundless, infinite barricade, the Hive Mind experienced a rare moment of sheer confusion.

Where the hell did this wall come from?! None of the intel from the other Hive Fleets mentioned a giant wall blocking the galaxy! Did we take a wrong turn?!