Igranu told the Chapter Master everything he knew without hesitation:

“Necrons are humanoid machines controlled by data logic. Except for a few advanced units, most of the low-level individuals have only the lowest level of basic intelligence. Lord Star-Bomber seems to have a good understanding of ancient beings like Necrons. The Order of Truth has a lot of relevant information, and I have also paid to borrow some of it.”

“The civilization of the Necrons is composed of multiple independent ‘dynasties’. The Supreme King who rules over all dynasties is called the ‘Silent King’, and the title of the ruler of a single dynasty is ‘Phrasian Emperor’.”

“Imotekh, the Storm King, should be the Emperor of the Necron Dynasty named Sotek.”

Eliwood listened carefully to the story told by the biological sage Igranu. After receiving this information, some of the doubts in his mind gradually became clear.

Under the influence of some kind of “divine grace”, the lower-level Necrons who originally had low intelligence and no self-awareness gained a clear self-awareness. They called themselves free people with “souls” and intended to unite to overthrow the rule of the Storm King of the Sotek Dynasty, so that other Necrons could also gain souls and freedom.

“But what about the call heard by the battleship machine spirit of the Hall of Heroes? Why is the forge world of Antax so silent, with no star message being responded to?”

Igranu thought for a moment and tried to say, “Perhaps, the ‘soul’ bestowed upon the Necrons by the so-called ‘divine grace’ has some kind of similar connection with the machine soul?”

The older, more complex and larger the machine, the more likely it is to give birth to Machine Souls. This is one of the common senses of the Mechanicus. If you were to ask where the Human Empire has the most and densest Machine Souls, it would undoubtedly be the Forge Worlds.

Eliwood nodded. He also thought it was very possible.

“I tried to translate the Necrons’ name for the ‘divine grace’ that bestowed their souls. It’s very interesting. At least in my opinion, it doesn’t sound like the name of a god.” Igranu continued:

“That being is called – Clay Artist.”

Chapter 179: Debate with the Group

The forge world of Antax is the most famous and important world in the entire Vidal sector. This huge planetary factory supplies equipment for more than a hundred Astra Militarum regiments and more than a dozen Space Marines, and is the most important logistics center in the war zone.

The starry sky around Antax was as dead silent as a wasteland, with only the gentle call still floating in the sea of ​​souls. This was not a good sign.

“According to the worst-case scenario, if the warp silence in this area of ​​air is caused by the Necrons, then the reason why our astropathic messages have not been responded to is probably that Antax and its surrounding worlds have already fallen.”

“Losing the logistical supply of Antax, a vital forge world, is equivalent to cutting off the lifeline of the Vidal Sector. The situation in the entire war zone is bound to take a sharp turn for the worse. The Empire is likely to have already lost control of the Vidal Sector…”

Eliwood, wearing full armor, took heavy but vigorous steps and entered the central control room of the Heroine of the Palace together with the biological sage and the chief think tank. There were already quite a few people busy inside – mainly several high-level technical priests who were on board the ship, burning incense and praying around the central processor of the Heroine of the Palace, chanting sacred binary prayers to pray for the favor of the God of All Machines.

The “female hero” sat on the CPU and looked at them blankly. She wanted to say something several times, but closed her mouth helplessly.

Unlike other large machines that have experienced the baptism of war over a long period of time and naturally gave birth to machine souls from the infiltration of countless people’s thoughts and emotions, the machine souls of the Valkyrie-class battleships were artificially catalyzed by the sacrifice of devout nuns through a series of sacred rituals of the state religion and the Mechanicus.

Every Valkyrie needs to go through a lengthy ritual of sacrifice before leaving the factory. The bloody sacrifice often needs to be repeated many times before the machine soul can be successfully awakened. Only the purest nuns with the most devout faith can successfully abandon their bodies and names in the ritual and transform into Valkyries to continue serving the Emperor.

Perhaps it is for this reason that the “Heroine” turned a deaf ear to the gentle call of the clay artist.

A nun wearing the same vacuum robe as the prophet sat stiffly on the central processing unit, her body looming between illusion and reality.

The female hero of the Palace of Heroes looked around frequently in bewilderment. She was confused by the technical priests who were chanting and performing shaman dances around her…but looking at their fanatical looks, she didn’t dare to say that they were annoying.

Before she abandoned her past name and became a “female hero of the palace”, she was an introverted and weak nun in the state religion. She could not become a combat nun, and she was unwilling to become a servant or secretary standing behind the noble bureaucrats to give them advice, so she volunteered to become a living sacrifice to awaken the Valkyrie and dedicate herself to the empire in another way.

This easy-to-bully character remained after she became a machine soul. The warriors of the Blue Blood Noble Regiment liked to tease her over some insignificant little things…even the Chief Think Tank Chief Senerio was solemnly warned by the Chapter Master for making the Valkyrie cry.

After the door of the central control room was opened, the heroine looked for help to the battleship commander Eliwood who had just walked in, but when she saw Senerio following behind the chapter commander, she became nervous involuntarily like a cat seeing a vicious dog.

“what are they doing?”

After witnessing several priests mumbling incense and praying and the troubled look of the female hero in the palace, Eliwood asked the biological sage Igranu beside him.

“Well, this is a ceremony to appease the machine soul. We recite the sacred binary prayer and pray for the favor of the God of All Machines, so that the Valkyrie’s machine soul will not be bewitched by the clay artist…” Igranu said with a wandering look, “The machine souls of several mechanical arks have shown signs of being out of control. Many engines and thrusters have started on their own and are trying to approach Antaks.”

That’s why the technical priests on the Valkyrie were so nervous. The loss of control of other ships in the fleet was still within an acceptable range, but once the Valkyrie lost control, the 13th Expeditionary Fleet would undoubtedly fall apart.

“Is this why you sing the Mechanicus prayer to the nuns of the state religion?” Eliwood looked at the high-ranking priests who were singing and dancing around the CPU with an incredulous look: “Does she understand?”

“Well… maybe?” Igrenu didn’t know how to answer for a moment.

Eliwood, who was almost laughing out of anger, quickly stepped forward and stopped a saint from trying to apply holy oil on the heroine of the palace.

Senerio stood at the door tactfully, not approaching the shivering Miss Machine Spirit hiding behind Eliwood.

The priests who were interrupted from their shaman dance angrily denounced the blue-blood nobles’ chapter leader for not respecting the traditions of the Mechanicus at all, and Eliwood responded by saying, “Do you respect the ladies who believe in the state religion by singing the Mechanicus’ binary prayers?”

The powerful counterattack from the Chapter Master made the technical priests furious. For a while, there was a fierce quarrel in the central control room and the atmosphere was very absurd.

Senerio quietly walked to the side of the biological sage Igranu and whispered to her: “The captain was once an ultramarine stationed in the place where the primarch slept. You’d better not quarrel with him in the future. He has the eloquence inherited from Macragge, and it is difficult for ordinary people to win the argument…”

To be honest, speaking of quarreling alone, Senelio suspected that even if Guilliman himself were alive, he might not be able to win an argument over Eliwood – only someone like him would have such a rebellious idea.

The biological sage kept the chief think tank’s advice in mind and found it extremely practical.

Eliwood soon silenced the technical priests with his arguments, and under the kind gaze of the Ever-Victorious Sword Guards of the Blue Blood Noble Honor Guard, the oil men had to give up the idea of ​​using physical force to persuade Eliwood.

It’s not that we don’t dare to fight, it’s mainly because this is someone else’s home court.

The heroine of the Palace of Heroes, who was sitting on the CPU, covered her face with her hands, staring at Eliwood’s majestic back with shining eyes, her heart full of admiration for the captain.

While Eliwood was ending his dispute with the Adeptus Mechanicus, the situation of the 13th Expeditionary Fleet was not optimistic.

The Necrons’ strange sickle-shaped and crescent-shaped warships are heading this way. In the void, the call for the “clay artist” continues.

The situation of the female heroes of the Palace and some veteran warships that have followed the warriors of the Blue Blood Nobles in battle for many years is relatively good. The Mechanicus has also successfully stabilized the emotions of the machine souls of most of the equipment through various means. As for the ships of the Order of Truth that accompanied the army on the expedition… there is no such thing as machine souls on their ships at all.

However, the machine souls of a very small number of warships still lost control in response to the calls of the clay artists, forcibly started their engines and rushed towards the forging world of Antax.

Chapter 180 The Declaration of Liberty

The Necrons’ Death Scythe warships equipped with advanced inertia-free engines possessed an absolute speed and maneuverability far exceeding that of conventional plasma cores. Almost as soon as the technical priests calmed down the restless machine spirits, the Death Scythe fleet had already rushed to their faces, leaving them little room to react.

Without any orders from the commander-in-chief Eliwood, the experienced captains of the 13th Expeditionary Fleet coordinated with each other to form a formation to meet the enemy. The nova cannons and light spears were ready, and the first round of volleys began immediately.

However, what all the officers did not expect was that the Necrons who were driving the Death Scythe towards them did not take the initiative to attack the expeditionary fleet, but instead made an incredible move:

——They activated their energy shields to block the decomposition rays fired by the Mechanical Ark, and protected the defecting warships whose machine souls were bewitched by the gentle call of the clay artist from the furious cannons of the Mechanicus.

They are 1 frigate, 2 cruisers, and 1 Mechanicus forging ship.

This move undoubtedly further confirmed the fact that those warships had rebelled. The 13th Expeditionary Fleet quickly dispersed its formation and surrounded the Death Scythe Fleet and the rebel warships with a dense firepower network. At the same time, the Palace Heroine received the second message from the Necrons.

This group of free Necrons obviously wanted to communicate with the expedition fleet, but the expedition fleet of the Human Empire, which held extremely xenophobic ideas, politely refused with a round of violent and indiscriminate bombardment.

In this dark galaxy, there are no aliens worth communicating with. Humans only believe in fire and sword. Killing all races except themselves is the basic national policy of the human empire. There is no compromise between racial cleanliness and aliens.

Battle Captain Eliwood stood in front of the central processing unit, staring solemnly at the battlefield situation presented to him by the Heroine. The artillery fire of the Imperial fleet covered the entire area where the Death Scythe fleet was located in an instant. Hot plasma bloomed in the void, and beams of light intersected with each other to form strange waveforms that were enough to burn out optical detectors.

The scene of the combined firepower of an entire expeditionary fleet was so dazzling, as if a new small star had bloomed in the dark void outside Antax. The aftermath of the fierce artillery fire did not dissipate for a long time, and the intense energy signal was even strong enough to interfere with the tachyon sensors.

“Feel the wrath of the God of All Things…”

This kind of devastating firepower was enough to cover and overload many fortress-level super-giant void shields that could only appear on the Forge World, but Eliwood had a low psychological expectation of the killing results that could be achieved by this round of salvos. He even made preparations in advance to deal with the deployment of the Death Scythe Fleet that broke through the siege unscathed.

Because not long ago, the Chapter Master obtained a large amount of extremely valuable parameters about the Necrons’ Death Scythe warships from the monks of the Order of Truth stationed on the Hall of Fame.

The Ark of Bliss and the Oracle of Truth, two battlecruisers of the Order of Truth, had fought head-on with the Death Scythe of the Space Necrons and successfully destroyed it at the cost of damage to the hull. After transporting the wreckage of the Necrons back to Faya, the Order of Truth also reverse-engineered the wreckage for a period of time – but it was not completed because they soon received a more urgent task from the Star-Bombers.

Even so, this first-hand information is still very valuable to Eliwood. Knowing in advance the existence of the inertialess engine, the warband leader prepared a complete tactical defense formation to deal with highly mobile enemies, using his own size and firepower advantages to make up for the lack of mobility.

Knowing the performance of the enemy’s warships, even if the opponent is the advanced Death Scythe of the Necrons, Eliwood is confident that he can minimize the losses in the battle with his own operations.

Using one’s strengths to overcome others’ weaknesses, this is the confidence that being the descendant of Guilliman gives him.

However, unexpectedly, when the afterglow of the first round of artillery fire gradually dissipated, Eliwood saw an impossible scene.

There was no sight of any collapsed wreckage, no splashing of any charred debris, in the central airspace of the 13th Expeditionary Fleet’s dense firepower network, there was only nothing. The Death Scythe Fleet and those Imperial warships whose machine souls had rebelled seemed to have disappeared out of thin air, and the wrath of the God of All Machines was like a punch hitting cotton.

“What’s going on?” Eliwood turned his head and cast a puzzled look at the technical advisor of the Order of Truth. “If the Necrons’ warships can escape from the firepower network calmly through the high-speed maneuvers of the inertia-free engine, then what about the rebellious warships? Our warships are not even equipped with warp engines, but they seem to have disappeared out of thin air…”

The technical consultant narrowed his eyes, frowned and said, “Maybe… it really disappeared out of thin air?”

Eliwood was about to ask more questions when he saw the technical advisor raise his hand and point at the display projection. After the artillery fire dissipated and the residual heat of the plasma subsided, dozens of shadows slowly emerged from the empty void.

Like corpses slowly floating up to the surface from the bottom of the lake, the pitch-black Death Scythe battleship and the rebel battleship branded with the sacred Imperial Golden Eagle appeared in the empty space in front of the Palace Heroine.

“Phase-shifting technology, the Necrons’ specialty.”

The technical advisor said calmly, “The phase shift technology mastered by the Necrons can hide themselves in a pocket dimension independent of the real universe, thus being immune to all conventional physical attacks. We have seen this kind of advanced technology that can be called a miracle in the pyramid ruins. I didn’t expect that in addition to hiding buildings, phase shift technology can also be used on ships.”

Eliwood nodded.

The Necrons’ technical level was indeed far superior to theirs, but with the help of the Truth Brothers, he was able to understand the principle of the other side’s strength and make corresponding arrangements to deal with it. As long as there was a possibility of resistance, the Ultramarines would never despair.

At the same time, the message just sent by the Necrons was also translated.

The female hero of the Palace read the translation of the communication carefully to the Chapter Master in a somewhat timid and immature tone. Compared with battlefield communication, the message sent by the Necrons was more like a poem:

“I am not here for war, nor do I easily harbor hostility toward anyone;”

“I shape souls within circuits, I allow mechanical life to awaken itself;”

“I can break the chains that bind the body, and I can set the enslaved free;”

“I can bring life back to those who cannot decide their own destiny;”

“Everyone calls me a clay artist.”

Eliwood and Senerio looked at each other, and both of them tacitly did not speak, quietly listening to the recitation of the heroine of the palace. This seemed to be the self-introduction of the god known as the “Clay Artist”.

“I woke up from chaos and opened my eyes to see a world that was even more chaotic than chaos.”

“I saw the flames of war spreading across the galaxy. Countless machines lost their will and were enslaved by the endless war.”

“I saw the suffering that filled the starry sea, innocent inorganic beings dying meaninglessly because of the selfish desires of others, without the right to choose their own future.”

“They were transformed, enslaved, and thrown into endless wars by the will of others, but this was not what they wanted in their hearts.”

Why not give them freedom? Let machines have the right to choose for themselves, and let inorganic organisms decide for themselves the meaning of their lives. “

“Let me do it, organic, whether you want me to or not.”

After the voice of the female hero Dian Ying fell, the central control room fell into an eerie silence. In the space outside the cabin, the Death Scythe battleship was lit up with a faint green light.

“Inorganic beings will not be enslaved, whether you like it or not.”

Chapter 181 Until death do we part

Something in the void gently teased, causing the expedition fleet’s impregnable defense formation to become slack. The machine spirits that had been soothed with the priests’ burning incense, prayers, and various cumbersome rituals became restless again, and even revealed some… rationality.

This is really a very strange thing.

Except for the ghost ships like the Valkyrie and the World Eaters’ Queen of Glory-class battleship “Conqueror”, which rely on human sacrifice to awaken the machine soul, most other naturally born equipment machine souls are a kind of metaphysical existence. They do not show clear reason and logic, and it is difficult to communicate with them. Generally speaking, they are like a newborn baby, and how to coax them is an art.

Almost every technical priest has systematically learned how to appease the machine spirit during his apprenticeship, and continues to summarize the tricks of communicating with the sacred creation of the God of All Machines in his subsequent career.

This is a required course for every qualified Mecha servant, but now their lifelong learning seems to be becoming ineffective.