Warhammer: Black Emperor

Chapter 298 The Dream Woven by the World Serpent
The furnace in front of Ninglu instantly turned golden.

A dazzling light shot into the sky, illuminating the entire village.

The Nocturne alien stared wide-eyed at the center of the light.

The light shone on Ninglu, making him appear like a god descending to earth. They couldn't help but recall the words spoken by the pale-skinned man.

“He will beat everyone in the competition, including you, Vokan.”

Alpharis watched Ninglu's actions. If Volkan was using forging techniques, he was forging weapons with superior all-around performance.

Ninglu, on the other hand, relied on absolute power to repeatedly process the ore, continuously improving the material's performance.

Large quantities of ore were consumed rapidly, quickly condensing under the tempering of intense flames.

The Nocturne Star people brought him materials time and time again, far exceeding what was expected before the competition began.

Twenty-three hours after the casting began, when Wokan reheated the shaped silver hammer and put it into the fire for quenching, Ninglu began casting.

At this time, Ninglu consumed hundreds of times more ore than Vokan, but no such conditions were set before the competition began, so the elders of the noble council did not stop it.

A master foundry from Themis, the city of warriors, emerges from his shock at the golden flames and evaluates the work from the perspective of forging craftsmanship.

"Although the flames of the outsider Nimrod are far beyond the ordinary, the art of casting is too crude."

While forging weapons, Vokan was also watching Ninglu's forging. His eyes blazed with fire as he spoke.

“Ninlu’s forging also has unique techniques. He adds the forging materials in several stages and quenches the sword at different times, thus giving it different characteristics.”

"After repeated tempering, the crystal structure of the ore changes, the density increases, it becomes harder and less prone to deformation, making it more suitable as a sword blade."

"The sword tip is sharper and has stronger penetrating power."

"..."

"He used this method to maximize his ability to manipulate flames," Vokan concluded.

The sidereal day of Nocturne is the same as that of Terra, which is 24 hours.

Ninglu actually only had one hour to forge the sword.

The last thing he held was a golden longsword, while Vokhan's was a silver hammer.

The two Primarchs then headed to the Volcano of Death, the largest and deadliest volcano on Nocturne, which is also the heart and source of life on this planet.

Looking at the dead volcano from afar, it is a pure, massive rock.

Ninglu arrived at the massive volcanic crater first. Looking down, he saw countless lava pits churning with surging heat.

With his superhuman vision, he can see enormous creatures lying beside lava rivers and emerging from caves.

Salamander.

Of all the creatures Nimrod had seen before, only the Kraken was larger than the fire salamander.

The largest thunder wolves on land in Fenris are not even as big as their heads.

Ninglu activated his spiritual vision and stared at the fire lizard. He saw that the fire lizard's eyes and teeth were shimmering with spiritual light.

[As expected, the fire lizard carried potion ingredients.]
John, who had learned about the prophetic system of the Vladians and was now at Nimrod's side, was eager to try out the "machine" of divination.

"Shall I divine the location of the largest salamander?"

“No, this is a competition between him and me,” Ning Lu said again. “Soon, you will have the opportunity to demonstrate your abilities.”

His eyes were deep and dark. He activated "Subspace Insight," and his vision was filled with countless points of light, large and small.

Generally speaking, the more powerful a creature is, the larger its projection in the subspace will be, and it is also most likely to be the largest creature in terms of size.

A few breaths later, Ninglu locked onto the largest spot of light.

He leaped from the mountaintop and landed steadily in front of a cave entrance.

The cave that Nimrod entered was devoid of any life.

There was no need; he didn't want to kill the fire lizard, as it would be a waste of potion ingredients.

Ninglu traveled through cave tunnels, delving deeper into the planet's interior.
He was astonished to see countless enormous creatures coiled around the core of Nocturne.

The smallest of them is many times larger than any salamander.

Their bodies resemble pythons, but they have scales like those of a dragon.

Their heads are shaped like inverted triangles.

World Snake!
Upon seeing the dragon-like creature, Ninglu immediately realized his mistake.

He used "subspace insight" to search for the most powerful beings reflected in the subspace.

But the largest creature on Nocturne is not the fire lizard, but the world serpent.

Ninglu knew that the World Serpent was the oldest species among the Nocturne Star Serpents.

As part of the planet's mythology, colossal dragons and serpents have slumbered for millennia, coiling like rocks around the heart of Nocturne deep within the planet.

According to Vokhan, the World Serpents are completely beyond human comprehension, and even for Astartes, witnessing them in person was an extraordinary and incredible experience.

Elite warriors among the future salamanders will hunt salamanders and use their teeth or other items as decorations.

The World Serpent was also an incredible creature to Astartes, clearly superior to the Salamander.
Nimrod activated his spiritual vision and looked at the World Serpents, immediately seeing their heads and hearts shining with a dazzling spiritual light.

The potion ingredients from the fire lizard are as different from those from the world serpent as fireflies and the moon.

[The World Serpent must be a mythical creature!]
As Ning Lu pondered, the dragon and snake in his vision suddenly underwent a tremendous change.

They transformed into long, fiery dragons, shimmering with a dazzling crimson light.

The next instant, Ning Lu's view suddenly changed.

He fell into the lava, and all he could see was flames.

Freddy the Black Wolf and John the Brainy Cat both felt their eyelids grow heavy and their heads slowly touched the ground.

Ninglu fell into the sea of ​​fire but didn't care. He had merged with the fragments of the Burner, so the flames couldn't harm him at all.

With a thought, he tried to spread his golden wings. The next moment, Ning Lu frowned, his expression turned grim, and the golden wings on his back disappeared.

How is this possible?

What power could separate me from the Star God fragment?

Moreover, I didn't feel anything at all; I wasn't aware of the process of it peeling away from me.
As Ning Lu pondered, he suddenly felt his body being engulfed by flames.

The raging flames burned him, causing him excruciating pain all over his body.

Ning Lu's eyes flashed with light as he tried to mobilize subspace energy to raise a psionic shield to protect himself.

[Huh?] A look of surprise flashed in his eyes. He couldn't sense the existence of the subspace tide.

Despite a series of unexpected events, Ninglu's mind remained calm and focused.

I just saw countless world snakes, which were instantly engulfed by flames.

The golden wings disappeared, and the subspace could no longer be sensed.

This sudden change is illogical. Even if the World Serpent could breathe fire or possess other abilities, it couldn't possibly strip me of my golden wings so instantly.
A thought flashed through Ninglu's mind: [Unless it's a dream.]
He realized this, and as if a mirror had shattered, the flames enveloping his body vanished from his vision.

Nimrod looked thoughtfully at Freddy and John, who were lying on the ground, fast asleep.

He recalled memories of the world snakes, which were always asleep, dreaming of fire.

I've fallen into the dream created by the World Serpent!

The World Serpent dreams of fire, and Vokhan knows that he, like me, should be trapped in the fiery dreams they create.

The World Serpent can induce dreams in Primarchs and even trap Freddy Krueger, a Sequence 4 esper skilled in using the "Dark" pathway, in a dream world. What kind of creatures are they?
Ninglu looked at their dragon-like bodies and thought to himself.

[The World Serpent possesses a spiritual radiance; it is an extraordinary being.]

There are two pathways related to dreams: the "dreamer" pathway of weaving dreams, and the "dark" pathway of drawing people into dreams.

Snakes around the world have dragon-like scales, which aligns with the extraordinary biological characteristics of the "visionary" approach.
After confirming the path to which the World Serpent belonged, Ninglu couldn't help but think.

[What level of extraordinary creature does the World Snake correspond to in the sequence?]

What plunged me, Vokan, and Freddy into this dream was not the work of a single World Serpent, but a dream woven collectively by countless World Serpents.

Therefore, it may not be an extraordinary organism at the sequence 1 or sequence 2 level, but it should at least be an extraordinary organism at the sequence 4 level.
Extraordinary creatures at Sequence 4 are different from those at Sequence 5 and below, and we have a preliminary understanding of the morphology of mythical creatures.

Only beings at this level can have dream influences on the original genome and the black wolf at sequence level 4.

The dreamscape created by these World Serpents actually drew me into it without me even realizing it, so they are most likely extraordinary beings at the Sequence 3 "Dream Weaver" level.

This corresponds to what Vokhan said in his memory: they always had dreams related to fire.

In other words, it's no wonder that a dream created by a group of Sequence 3 extraordinary beings could lure me into a dream without my knowledge.
Ninglu's mind raced as he tried to understand everything about the World Serpent.

He looked at the world serpent coiled around the earth's core, sleeping in the dream it had woven.

[A group of extraordinary beings at Sequence Level 3, what lies before me is a treasure trove!]

The question is, do I have the ability to get my hands on them?
Ninglu's mind raced through the entire process from seeing the World Serpent to falling into a dream, and then waking up.

A moment later, his eyes suddenly lit up.

I remain conscious while I am in a dream.

Because I possess the "Disordered Kingdom," the Source keeps me conscious in my dreams.

The Spear of Dionysus is a divine weapon, capable of slaying the World Serpent; my golden wings can catch up with them.
Thinking of this, Ninglu suddenly spread his wings and drew Dionysus's Spear.

He flew toward the largest one, the one that circled the Earth's equator.

In an instant, Ning Lu flew above the inverted triangular head, thrusting his spear downwards.

The spear of Dionysus pierced the dragon scales, which were as large as a house and several meters thick, as if they were a layer of paper, and was instantly pierced by the spearhead.

Nimrod flew out from the neck of the World Serpent, and Dionysus's Spear pierced through the neck of the colossal creature.

He deliberately avoided the brain, so as not to damage the potion ingredients.

The Primarch seized the World Serpent's head and hurled it toward a lava platform.

The dead world snake's body still coils around the Earth's core due to inertia.

The snakes from other worlds trembled in unison, sensing that the dream they had collectively created had lost its greatest "dream weaver."

Their eyes remained closed, but their bodies detached from the earth's core and crawled towards caves in different directions.

The underground network of caves on Nocturne Star was created by the world serpent.

No wonder even the Astartes of the Salamanders didn't have control over the entire underground tunnel network.
Ninglu flapped its golden wings and instantly caught up with the second largest world serpent.

As he killed four World Serpents in a row, Freddy suddenly woke up from his sleep and exclaimed in astonishment.

"I spend all my time drawing people into my dreams, and yet I've fallen into someone else's trap..."

"No, it's in the dream created by the other snake."

Ninglu killed forty-eight World Serpents and only stopped when all the other serpents were out of sight.

He did not activate "Warspace Insight" and continued to hunt down other world serpents.

That's enough.

There's no need to exterminate them; let them continue to reproduce.

We can hunt them down again when needed.
Thinking of this, Ninglu flew back to the Earth's core. He loosened his grip, and the Spear of Dionysus fell straight into the Earth's core, where it was engulfed by flames.

A smirk played on his lips. "Oops! My hand slipped!"

Ninglu smiled and then began dragging and transporting the World Serpent's corpse to the "Land of Chaos".

　PS: Due to a temporary power outage, Chapter 2 was not finished and will be released at 23:23.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)