Chapter 923 - 922

The Silent King knew that the Lord of Hope was dismantling the authority underpinning his rule.

That was extremely dangerous.

The situation was already showing signs of spiraling out of control, just as it had during the First War of Secession tens of millions of years ago. Resentment was building once more.

He had to kill and utterly destroy the Lord of Hope, the source inflaming those emotions. Only by extinguishing the defiant dynasties' hope could he suppress the rest of the Necrontyr.

That was the lesson the Silent King had learned from the First War of Secession.

Back then, he had been too proud. He had chosen to destroy the frontier dynasties one by one, intending to make every rebel understand the terror of the great Szarekh.

Yet by the time he finally annihilated those dynasties, the seeds of rebellion had already spread throughout the Necrontyr Empire.

War erupted across his entire realm.

The flames of secession burned fiercely and proved almost impossible to extinguish.

"He must die. The fires of defiance have not yet fully taken shape. Once the Lord of Hope is dead, all the defiant ones will become nothing more than a disorganized mob.

"When that happens, the Triarch Praetorians can uproot those seeds of rebellion one by one!"

That was one of the reasons the Silent King had mobilized his tomb fleets and abandoned all honor to surround the Lord of Hope.

He was willing to use any method outside the ancient codes to kill him, whether it meant an overwhelming siege, an ambush, or an assassination.

Once the Silent King issued his command to kill, a grave silence fell across the entire encirclement.

The Phaerons and nobles no longer dared to denounce him. They could only bury their dissatisfaction deep within themselves.

The Silent King's authority might have been shaken, but the shadow of his former power remained. Every Necrontyr knew how many rebels Szarekh had slaughtered in the past.

Whether during the two Wars of Secession or in countless other disputes, it was always the sovereign upon the Dais of Dominion who emerged victorious.

Szarekh's authority had been forged through victory after bloody victory, atop mountains of corpses and seas of blood left by those who opposed him.

Unless the final moment had already arrived, those Phaerons would not dare openly raise their banners against the Silent King.

If they truly possessed such courage, they would have joined the Stormlord or the Lord of Hope in rebellion long ago instead of continuing to serve Szarekh.

Fortunately, Eden's recent propaganda offensive had still produced results.

The Phaerons and nobles watched nervously, hesitating over whether to obey the supreme command and destroy the Lord of Hope's fleet.

His tomb fleet was already trapped within the encirclement. If they all attacked together, they could wipe it out completely, including the tomb command flagship carrying the Lord of Hope.

That would most likely put an end to his attempt to seize power. He might even be captured and sealed away, forever losing any hope of ending the Silent King's reign.

Every Necrontyr waited tensely to see what would happen.

They knew that if even one dynasty opened fire, the remaining fleets would be forced to follow, and the Lord of Hope would be destroyed.

Inside the tomb command flagship, Eden and his followers were equally tense.

This was the decisive moment.

"My lord, we must form a defensive formation. It is our only chance of surviving until our reinforcements arrive..."

Zahndrekh offered his counsel.

According to the latest intelligence carried by pulse transmissions, another of their tomb fleet groups would arrive sooner than expected.

If they could endure the siege for a short while, the reinforcements might allow them to break through the encirclement.

The probability was extremely low, less than ten percent, but it was still a precious opportunity.

If the Lord of Hope's incitement failed to sway any of the Phaerons commanding the opposing fleets, the attack that followed would annihilate this elite force.

They might still escape the Xindu System through their Reanimation Protocols, but forcing their way back inside afterward would be far more difficult.

No one knew what other ancient constructs the Silent King might activate to strengthen the system's defenses.

During the War in Heaven, the Necrontyr had captured numerous examples of the Old Ones' higher-dimensional spatial technology.

Some of those technological relics could seal an entire star system from within and without. They could endure a century of stellar cycles under sustained regional bombardment, literally outlasting several generations of the short-lived Necrontyr.

"This is getting troublesome."

Eden appeared calm, but inside, his logic matrices were beginning to seize up from the pressure.

He had no idea whether his incitement had truly worked or whether it would be enough to prevent the impending attack.

This was one of the few times Eden had no additional trump card available. More precisely, several of his trump cards could not be used under these circumstances.

"No. We cannot show even the slightest hesitation, much less any sign of retreat!"

After considering the situation, he rejected Zahndrekh's proposal to arrange the tomb fleet in a defensive formation.

As the Lord of Hope, Eden could not afford to lose his nerve.

The slightest display of fear would shake the faith of even more Necrontyr, rendering all his previous efforts meaningless.

Besides, Zahndrekh's plan offered an appallingly low chance of success.

What difference was there between failure and anything below a ninety percent chance of victory?

He might as well gamble everything.

"My friends."

Eden raised his head and looked at the Phaerons and nobles gathered below his throne. His emerald gaze remained perfectly composed.

He could sense their anxiety and hesitation.

They remained loyal, but any living being would instinctively feel fear when confronted by an immense and seemingly unstoppable mass of living-metal warships.

That force could destroy any star system, perhaps even an entire sector. It could certainly annihilate their fleet.

Yet the more desperate the situation became, the calmer the Lord of Hope had to appear.

He needed to give them confidence.

"The great new god watches over us," Eden declared. "The Necrontyr have longed for this moment for far too long.

"I believe those Phaerons are wavering. They will make the right choice and welcome the arrival of their new king..."

Eden was not lying.

Through scattered echoes of faith and the pulse transmissions sent by his infiltrators, he had discovered that the Phaerons and Overlords commanding the surrounding tomb fleets had reached a strange equilibrium.

None of them seemed willing to attack first.

They were hesitating. They were struggling with themselves.

To some extent, the emotion virus and Eden's incitement had worked. Driven by intense resentment, those high-ranking Necrontyr were already leaning toward his side.

Only the lingering terror inspired by the Silent King prevented them from acting.

"This is my chance, and I have to seize it!"

Eden made a bold decision.

He went all in.

He was already completely surrounded and had reached rock bottom. Whichever direction he moved now, the only way left was up.

He swiftly issued a new command.

"This... is illogical."

"What is happening? What does the Lord of Hope intend to do?"

Amid the tense atmosphere, the Phaerons and nobles aboard the surrounding tomb fleets witnessed something none of them had anticipated.

The Lord of Hope's elite fleet slowly came to a halt.

Only the magnificent tomb command flagship continued forward, advancing alone.

It sailed directly toward the densely packed tomb fleets as though the vessels before it were not enemies at all.

Breaking away from its fleet escort in this manner was unquestionably suicidal.

The nearby tomb fleets needed only to concentrate their fire to destroy the command flagship and the Lord of Hope within it.

Yet the flagship kept coming, moving neither quickly nor slowly.

The Phaerons' and nobles' logic matrices struggled to process the sight. Beneath their confusion, they even felt a trace of awe.

They did not understand what was happening. The Lord of Hope's actions clearly contradicted conventional Necrontyr logic.

That only deepened their hesitation.

For a time, not a single Phaeron ordered their ships to open fire. Nor did anyone attempt to block the tomb command flagship's path.

This remained true even as Hapthatra the Radiant, the Silent King's mouthpiece, roared through their cortical fields and commanded them to fire.

Hapthatra did not understand what the Lord of Hope was planning either, but he could vaguely sense the situation changing.

Worse still, it was changing in a direction unfavorable to the great Szarekh.

The attention of the entire Xindu System was now focused upon the slowly advancing tomb flagship.

Then the situation changed again.

Hapthatra's threats appeared to have taken effect. The nearest dynastic fleet began to move.

Its warships targeted the Lord of Hope's flagship. Countless dark green crystalline facets lit up in unison, filling the void with a deep, continuous mechanical hum.

The particle-whip arrays gathered dazzling energy, poised to fire at any moment.

"Sensor arrays have detected an energy surge... High-risk strike incoming..."

"We can intercept no more than a single salvo. Concentrated fire will destroy this tomb flagship!"

The warning made the hearts of Zahndrekh and the other beings inside the dome sink.

They hardly needed the sensor arrays to tell them what was happening. They could see the void outside illuminated by particle energy.

They also knew exactly how destructive particle-whip arrays could be.

Those highly condensed lashes of energy could pierce both shields and hulls. They could even penetrate a planet that lacked a planetary force field.

If the command flagship had remained within the protection of its fleet, it might have endured several volleys.

Under these conditions, however, they had almost no chance of resisting the attack.

"Your Majesty, Lord of Hope, perhaps we should initiate a mass-translocation protocol!"

"We cannot allow ourselves to be destroyed here! The attack will disable our Reanimation Protocols and condemn us to true death!"

The Phaerons and nobles of the Charnovokh Dynasty and the other recently allied dynasties finally panicked and began shouting.

They realized that their only chance of survival was to use the dome's large phase-translocation device to transfer collectively into the elite tomb fleet behind them.

Otherwise, once the command flagship was destroyed, the interdiction field that followed would prevent them from activating their Reanimation Protocols. They would be unable to return to their ships' tomb complexes and awaken again.

These recently surrendered Necrontyr instinctively feared the arrival of death.

More accurately, self-preservation took priority whenever they made any decision.

In the eyes of those Phaerons, nobles, and countless others, the Lord of Hope was committing suicide.

"Who said we would be destroyed? What you hear is the trumpet announcing our victory."

The Lord of Hope's gentle voice spread throughout the dome and inexplicably suppressed the unrest.

His words and demeanor stirred a trace of trust within the Necrontyr.

At that moment, vast quantities of information converged within Eden's logic matrices. He analyzed the data and reached a conclusion.

"I've got this one in the bag!"

He could sense another shift in the Necrontyr's emotions.

A far greater transformation was taking place.

Ever since seizing a portion of Angron's Warp essence, Eden had been able to perceive emotions across a vast area.

That ability had become particularly effective after the emotion virus began influencing the Necrontyr.

Events were moving in his favor. Among countless possibilities, Eden had found the path that offered him the greatest advantage.

Under the gaze of innumerable Necrontyr, he ascended to the platform atop the command dome and stared at the particle whips shining in the void ahead.

He showed not the slightest fear of impending death.

Hum.

A colossal projection of the Lord of Hope rose into the void above the dome, appearing to gaze upon both the opposing tomb fleets and every Necrontyr within them.

"What... is he trying to do?"

Even the Phaeron who had prepared to attack no longer knew how to respond. An unfamiliar tremor ran through his mind.

He had never experienced such a feeling before.

The emotions within him shifted again.

He was even beginning to feel afraid.

Was the Lord of Hope's bizarre behavior part of some terrifying attack?

This was, after all, the being who had fought his way into the Xindu System and now threatened the Silent King himself. No one knew what weapons he might possess.

The Phaeron's vigilance reached its limit. He reinforced his fleet's shields, yet did not dare issue the order to continue attacking.

What if he opened fire and the Lord of Hope singled him out for destruction?

"My noble kin..."

Before the eyes of the entire system, Eden finally spoke.

The colossal blue projection moved with him as pulse transmissions entered the cortical fields of countless Necrontyr.

Every Necrontyr was listening, including the Silent King and his followers.

For the moment, they could not sever the transmission.

They had no choice but to listen.

They had no choice but to watch.

"Our noble people have lost far too much to war. Now is the time for change.

"We will end all of this and reclaim everything we once possessed..."

Enhanced by the colossal projection, Eden appeared to be looking directly at every Necrontyr in the system.

Streams of information accompanied his words.

They showed the new god's promises, the beauty of emotion, the precious nature of flesh and souls, and the restored Necrontyr cities with their banquets and celebrations.

Among those images was a scene of Fahra cradling a newborn child, her face filled with happiness.

These were the wonders the Necrontyr had lost for sixty million years.

They were everything the Necrontyr desired.

Eden promised that every Necrontyr willing to participate in the restoration of their civilization would receive those gifts and earn the new god's favor.

There was only one condition.

They had to end the war and refuse to be driven onward by the true culprit behind their suffering, the Silent King.

In other words, Eden did not demand that every Necrontyr follow him in attacking Szarekh.

Merely standing aside would be enough.

"I will restore prosperity to the Necrontyr Empire. I will not plunge our people into one War of Secession after another, nor will I send arrogant mouthpieces to drive our kin into the abyss from their lofty thrones..."

Eden continued speaking at an unhurried pace.

Hardly a sentence passed without some reference to the Silent King. Each one struck mercilessly at Szarekh's most painful failures.

Eden was practically chasing the sovereign of the Necrontyr down and beating him with every word, all while subtly implying that Szarekh was nothing more than a drowsy old king.

The Silent King's fury climbed toward critical levels.

Hapthatra and the others were powerless to stop the broadcast. All they could do was rage impotently while shouting that Eden's claims were lies, false reports, and fabricated news.

Eden simply possessed better transmission facilities and distribution channels.

If the Silent King had not conveniently delivered so many tomb fleets to his doorstep, spreading his message would never have been so easy.

"When my people need me, I will never flee the battlefield.

"I will not abandon our entire race and seek refuge beyond the galaxy like the cowardly Silent King.

"When you need me, I will come.

"Just as I have now.

"I believe my people will welcome my arrival. You will welcome me as I bring an end to the Silent King's tyranny.

"You will not fire upon me..."

Eden's words pulled at the minds of the Phaerons and nobles.

They truly did not want another war.

Nor did they wish to continue languishing in eternal emptiness within their living-metal bodies.

According to Eden's assessment, not every Necrontyr craved war. If they had, the Second War of Secession would never have happened.

The truth was that countless Necrontyr had grown weary of wars that had dragged on for tens of millions of years.

Only momentum kept them from stopping.

All they needed was an opportunity.

"My noble kin, the choice is now yours.

"Will you reclaim the beauty of your past, or will you continue sinking into the abyss...?"

As Eden spoke, he made an even more astonishing decision.

He completely lowered the tomb command flagship's shields.

Then he deactivated his personal shield as well.

The tomb flagship continued its slow advance.

The Lord of Hope stood completely exposed to the void without the slightest protection, as if offering his bare chest to the muzzles of his enemies' guns.

(End of Chapter)