Warhammer: Black Emperor

Chapter 242 Star God Fragments
The soldiers of the Fourth Regiment stationed at the entrance saw countless humanoid creatures lying on the ground.

They were in the freezing cold, naked, and covered in thick body hair.

They no longer showed any human characteristics; some had sharp claws that protruded several centimeters.

Some of them have protruding fangs, resembling ferocious beasts...

The "gravedigger" guarding the entrance shouted loudly.

"Degenerate and corrupted mutants, fire!"

The Shadow Order members raised their bomb guns and unleashed a hail of bullets at the mutants.

The bombs exploded, and the mutants were blown to pieces.

Inside the ruins, the "psychic" reports to the Primarch.

"Father, those foolish mutants have been defeated."

"But deep within this ruin, there are undead creatures that broke in because the Void Shield was dispelled."

Nimrod had already remembered what it was: when Fernus Manus was excavating underground ruins, he encountered a walking corpse-like creature.

They are half-flesh, half-machine monsters who steal machines from the ruins.

He, along with Adams and Alcéna, hurried deeper into the ruins.

Machines and equipment were left behind by them.

The Primarch would not allow his spoils to be taken away. He sprinted at full speed, leaving the two behind, and arrived deep within the ruins in a matter of moments.

He saw dozens of strange creatures approaching with heavy steps.

Some of them had bare upper bodies, while their lower bodies resembled those of an eight-legged spider.

Some had drill bits and chainsaws attached to their arms, and their stiff, rotting heads emitted cold air.

……

The walking corpse, a mixture of flesh and metal, staggered forward and charged toward Ninglu.

The Primarch drew the Vaal Sword and charged into the monster horde, its blue and white light flashing as it destroyed one monster after another.

He rushed into the mountain's interior and saw countless surging, half-metal, half-flesh zombies.

Adams arrived second, and the "Gravedigger" activated his "Death Eye," looking down upon the undead monsters from a higher level.

He charged into the horde of half-metal, half-flesh undead, wielding his charged sword and striking the undead creatures' hearts—their power core.

The disintegrating force field shredded the energy heart, and the "gravedigger" charged at another undead creature, using its charged blade to sever its frozen, rotting head.

Arsena Dunn arrived last, raising his staff in his right hand, the fire dragon runes gleaming.

A blazing fire dragon devoured more than a dozen undead creatures.

The silver-haired psionicist raised his left hand again, releasing a "vortex of destruction" that pulled a towering undead monster, resembling a knight's mech, into the rift he had created.

After Ninglu and his two companions cleansed all the half-mechanical, half-flesh undead monsters, they issued an order for the "archaeologist" to lead the technical soldiers to excavate the ruins and dismantle the machinery.

The Death Lord led the escort team, leaving Alsena and John the Brain Cat behind, while only taking Freddy the Black Wolf with him to the Alien Ruins.

The mountain where the alien ruins were located soon came into Ning Lu's view, and he slowed his pace.

Ning Lu's eyes were deep and unfathomable as he gazed at the mountain peaks.

A moment later, his eyes returned to normal.

[The power within is unrelated to the warp.]
His spiritual vision is not yet able to reach the mountain peak five kilometers away. Spreading his consciousness may cause unpredictable changes.

The Primarch looked around again, but saw no lava lake or any landmarks bearing the name Medusa.

[Indeed, if this place were so conspicuous, Finus Manus would have discovered it long ago.]
No original genome was found; continue onward.

Ninglu climbed the mountain. From the outside, the mountain under his feet had nothing special about it; it couldn't even be called Black Snow.

The progenitor still keenly sensed an anomaly: the temperature of this mountain peak was several degrees higher than that of those snowless peaks.

Moreover, as he walked deeper into the mountains, the temperature slowly rose.

A drop of sweat occasionally dripped from Freddy's body.

Ninglu arrived deep in the mountains. The bronze gate of the ruins was open, and golden parts were scattered on the black marble passage.

Some are sharp in shape, others are broken claws; they are all part of the golden mechanical eagle's body.

The progenitor stopped in front of the door, a drop of sweat fell, and after examining it for a moment, it entered the secret passage.

Black marble has no special energy and is not black stone.

But there was no trace of mutants here. If those madmen had been here, there would definitely have been traces.

No mutants come here, simply because it's hot?
Ning Lu pondered for a moment, then stepped inside.

He discovered that inside the ruins, the exposed rock layers shimmered with a metallic luster, like a giant mirror.

After walking about one kilometer, the passage opens up, and a circular platform appears in front of you.

There are many stone bases on the platform, but most of the golden mechanical eagles placed on them have been moved away, except for the one in the center, which remains.

"It's so hot," Freddy muttered. He had only been standing for a moment when a pool of sweat had formed beneath him.

Ning Lu keenly noticed that the temperature here was close to forty degrees Celsius.

The Primarch surveyed its surroundings, finding the platform encircled by shimmering, metallic rock formations, as if this ruin consisted solely of a circular platform, designed to house the golden mechanical eagle.

The Primarch then began to study the circular platform beneath his feet, and a few seconds later, his pupils contracted.

The prototype was discovered to have numerous runes imprinted on the platform. These runes were in different forms, but they had one thing in common.

Each rune was outlined in red, thread-like material.

Their shapes are all related to burning flames. Some are linear and others radial, resembling flames spewed from a flamethrower.

There are also torch-shaped ones...

Ning Lu seemed lost in thought as he stared at the ground.

The Primogen's brain spun rapidly, disassembling the runes one by one and memorizing them.

After memorizing all the runes, he walked to the center of the platform, where the only remaining golden mechanical eagle stood.

The golden mechanical eagle is nearly ten meters tall, with its wings spread wide, lifelike, as if it is about to take flight.

The gene prototype stretched out its right hand and touched it; the temperature was nearly 100 degrees Celsius.

Ning Lu's black eyes gleamed as he noticed red runes branded on the golden mechanical eagle.

Upon closer inspection, the Primarch discovered that all of these runes could be found on the ground.

In his mind, all the runes on the ground and their corresponding locations immediately appeared.

The Primarch noticed that the runes on the ground could outline the shape of a soaring eagle.

A flash of inspiration struck Ninglu. He examined the mechanical eagle in front of him and found that the runes on the platform, when scaled down proportionally, corresponded to the runes on the mechanical eagle.

The Primarch bent his knees slightly, leaped into the air, and touched the only rune on the mechanical eagle's head with his right index finger.

He kept moving, lightly tapping the golden mechanical eagle with his index finger, each tap landing on the runes.

A moment later, all the runes were lit up.

The golden mechanical eagle radiates a dazzling golden and fiery red light.

The platform trembled violently, and the golden mechanical eagle slowly took flight.

The spot where it stood revealed a spiraling downward passage.

Ning Lu stared at the passageway, his thoughts wandering.

[Well, the technicians probably didn't move it because they discovered the connection between the rune and the golden mechanical eagle.]

However, due to certain circumstances, the research was forced to stop, perhaps due to an attack by hostile forces.

Some of the Garuda replicas they made were taken away by hostile forces and spread to various Medusa clans.
Ning Lu gathered his thoughts and turned his gaze to the passage below.

He keenly sensed that as the passage opened, a wave of heat rushed out from below.

The passage seemed to lead to the Earth's core.

Ninglu activated "Subspace Insight" and then activated Spiritual Vision, but found nothing.

He stepped down the black stairs.

Ning Lu carefully observed his surroundings and noticed that the diameter of the spiral staircase was getting wider and wider.

After walking several dozen steps, the platform unfolded in front of him, with a golden mechanical eagle about one meter tall standing in it.

He continued down, crossing platform after platform, just like descending the edge of a pyramid.

The number of mechanical eagles on the platform is increasing, and they are getting bigger and bigger.

But he never encountered the slumbering space undead he had anticipated.

Ning Lu had just stepped onto the tenth floor when he suddenly felt his feet tremble.

The Primarch keenly sensed that a powerful creature was struggling below.

Sweat dripped from his forehead as he gripped the Val's Sword and continued his descent.

Ning Lu walked along the spiral passage to the next level.

He found that it was like stepping into a new world; with just one step, everything around him changed.

The rock walls of the passage are covered with cracks like a spider web, through which molten flames flow.

Even the Primarch felt threatened by the molten flow. He had no doubt that if he hadn't been carrying magical items like the ring, his body would have been carbonized if he had been in the molten flow for a long time.

[Carbonized!]
As this thought crossed his mind, he recalled the arm of Fernus Manus that had been carbonized when he killed Asimus, who was suspected to be a fragment of the Void Dragon, and fell into the lava.

Ninglu felt the tremors beneath his feet intensify, but he continued his descent.

After a few steps, he saw a golden mechanical eagle.

It is several kilometers high and has a wingspan of over ten kilometers.

Its body was covered with cables, and it was surrounded by alien machines of different sizes.

The golden eagle's eyes gleamed with a fiery red light as it looked at Ninglu.

Ninglu met the fiery red eyes and sensed a destructive energy within them.

He also saw a dazzling spiritual radiance in the golden eagle.

Star God Fragments!

A thought flashed through Ninglu's mind: [The space necromancers built the pyramids not as tombs, but to bind the fragments of the Star God.]

Those runes are used to extract energy from the Star God fragments and then pass it upwards layer by layer.
After realizing this, Ninglu suddenly realized...

After the mechanical eagles were moved away, the seal of the Star God weakened, and the power of the Star God fragments overflowed, affecting the lava lake.

The fragments of the Void Dragon, the silver dragon Asimus, are trapped inside by Fernus Manus and cannot escape.

I've unlocked the mechanical eagle rune on the platform again; the Star God fragment is about to break free!
As he pondered this, the entire underground space began to tremble violently.

Amidst the earthquake and tremors, magma erupted.

(End of this chapter)