Warhammer 40k: Melee Warriors

"What else?" Komi turned to look at Fuda, then immediately walked toward the bridge. He ordered the sailors, "Change course. We're not going back to Auberdine. We have more important things to do."

"Should we notify Samuel and Spyr's fleets to rendezvous with us?"

“No need. Let them continue clearing out the pirates. They need time to familiarize themselves with how to use the Spirit Bird Divination Ritual.”

The Punisher headed in the other direction, approaching Mandeville Point and entering the warp.

A few weeks later, the Punisher sailed out of the warp and arrived at a desolate place in a cosmic sense.

The Gothic Sector—the edge of the Void of Exile, discovered and named by an expedition of the Mechanicus. They ventured into this darkness, a place so dark it would make one want to commit suicide, with the goal of expanding the human empire's territory, but never reached the other side of the Void until their supplies were completely exhausted.

There are no planets, no dust, and even the movement of molecules is abnormally slow due to the extreme cold.

Looking at the darkness before him, Komi suddenly felt a sense of familiarity with the chaos of the subspace.

Activating the Spirit Bird Divination Device, Gu Jian pinpointed the location of the Spirit Race Ark on the screen; the colossal ship was hidden on the edge of the darkness before him.

Chapter 474: Aren't we... going through the internet?

"They're right ahead. Get the troops ready. We can't let our guard down against those aliens," Komi commanded from his captain's throne.

A few points of starlight appeared in the darkness. It was not a new world emerging from the void, but the light emitted by the Eldar Ark after it closed the holographic field and exposed itself.

A colossal, miraculous object was revealing its full form in the darkness. Fithia gasped in astonishment, "The sacred oil of the God of Machines! What is this thing...?"

“The Spirit Race Ark, Phitia.” Koken answered Phitia’s confusion, “This thing is an ancient machine, or it can be understood as a living thing that has been immersed in souls for too long.”

"Are we... are these the pirates we're supposed to eliminate?"

“No, they are our temporary allies. They hold the key to saving the war in the Gothic Sector, and I need it.”

"Then we can wipe out these damned Eldar, right?" Fithia exclaimed excitedly. She wanted to dedicate her life to studying the Eldar ark before her, and she would never tolerate a group of aliens living on it, even if they had existed for longer than humans had been studying science.

Koji laughed a few times. "Of course, we are still enemies, but we have temporarily embarked on the same path with different ideas."

"Can we defeat this ark? Based on the current parts alone, its volume is already 24,000 times that of the Punisher..."

"Don't worry about Fetia, just keep watching and you'll see." Koji was calm and composed. He hadn't dared to come here alone with the Punisher escort ship on a whim.

The two demons, Dog and Mimi, have already explained the terrible situation of the Eldar very clearly...

But when he saw the full view of the ark, Koken was still startled.

The bubble-like dome was riddled with holes, and the towering spires had either collapsed or been modified by the orcs who invaded to suit their own aesthetics. Gu Jian could see the smoke and fire generated by the large-scale civil war among the orcs constantly emerging and flowing into the void through the gaps.

Compared to the wounds inflicted by the orcs, Komi felt that this ark was like a gutted whale, unfortunately stranded on the beach, covered in fungi, and then the still-active nerve tissue in this half-dead corpse twitched a couple of times...

Are these the lingering poison left by the devil?

Komi thought to himself as he looked at those purple spots.

No one answered Komi's question. The light that the ark had emitted, like a constellation of stars before their eyes, suddenly vanished, as if their ark had lost power.

"What happened now? Can't those spirit races even defend their last remaining territory? Don't tell me the orcs accidentally destroyed their energy center." Gu Jian frowned, leaning forward slightly.

Fortunately, the Eldar did not disappoint Gu Jian further; the ark simply concentrated its energy at its slender bow and launched a void shield.

“Saint Otto, you also need to activate the Void Shield on the Punisher. We will need this device for protection during the upcoming voyage.” Novia’s voice came, flowing only to Komi’s ear. The prophet controlled her powerful psionic energy very well.

"Why activate the Void Shield? Does the Network Path navigation require this?"

"Hehe..." Novia chuckled lightly, and Komi sensed something was amiss. "Who told you we were going to travel on the net track?"

"Isn't the Black Library located in the Internet Path?" Komi asked, but still gave his subordinates orders to activate the Void Shield.

"This admission ticket doesn't take us to the Black Library, it's just a collection of books under his management." Where Komi couldn't see, Novia's face showed a clear smile. She seemed to have finally found an opportunity to get revenge after being insulted by Komi at the last meeting.

She held the black admission ticket between her fingers, drawing the soul energy from the entire infinite circuit into her hand.

The admission ticket in her hand went from real to ethereal, influencing the power of the entire space.

The next moment, the Exterminator and the Eldar Ark seemed to be walking on the edge of a cliff, being pressed down at their sterns by a force tens of millions of times stronger than gravity, gliding at ten thousand times the speed of light in this desolate void.

The dial that calculated the warship's travel distance scrolled rapidly. Komi glanced at it and his expression changed drastically as he roared inwardly.

Sailing faster than light speed! ?

How is this achieved?

Looking towards the Ark, Kouki realized that this creation, a testament to the fading glory of the Eldar Empire, was bearing far more pressure at such a rapid pace than the Punisher.

The multi-linked void shield generator, obtained through plunder and theft from the human empire, was insufficient to completely conceal the massive ark. Some components exposed outside the void shield were stretched into single-chain structures composed of molecules at faster-than-light speeds. When the forces between molecules were insufficient to counteract this speed, a portion of the ark was forever lost in the void.

The dial's values ​​flipped upwards, while the Void Shield's energy plummeted downwards, quickly reaching a point where even Fithia had to shriek a warning.

"The Void Shield still has 15% energy left! Saint Otto!"

"Damn it... only a few seconds have passed? Have the mechanical cleric cast the Overload Incantation on the Void Shield. We have to get through this distance! Otherwise, we'll all be dead!"

"Yes, Saint Otto!"

Upon receiving the order, the mechanical monks immediately began overloading the Void Shield. Following procedure, they prepared hundreds of barrels of holy oil, each carrying two barrels to their respective posts.

They first immersed their hands completely in the holy oil until no more bubbles appeared before pulling them out and touching the Void Shield Generator.

“Oh! Magnificent! Glorious Void Shield Generator!” the mechanical monks murmured, stroking the Void Shield Generator’s metal casing. “Look at your coils flowing with holy blue plasma, they are so vast and holy! Perfectly round! Just one glance at this magnificent design makes my entire body harder than the purest adamantite! Oh, and the millions of numbers engraved on you, reading them allows me to hear your voice echoing in my internal storage chip again and again!”

Countless heartfelt praises, and endless, passionate service!

These things made the Void Shield Generator burn with desire, and then transformed into energy from nothing to prop up the Void Shield, which was on the verge of collapse, once again!

"Oh! How great! How great!"

Seeing the Void Shield Generator respond to their service in this way, the mechanical monks' fervor intensified. They abruptly ripped off their robes, revealing their bodies, which were mostly iron with little flesh, and then connected the electronic cables to the Void Shield Generator.

Chapter 475: Val... what did I just see?

The energy supporting their bodies is connected to the energy of the Void Shield Generator, forming a cyclical energy loop.

Some cultivators who had not undergone sufficient transformation were overjoyed and fell unconscious during the energy shock, leaving charred marks all over their bodies from the high-voltage electric shock.

Some even died on the spot. The machine spirit of the Void Shield Generator was obviously too excited, causing the blue plasma sealed in the pipe to overflow.

These cultivators, engrossed in the energy circuits, were unaware of this; they disintegrated in the plasma, and dust settled on the outer shell of the void shield generator...

Such a scene would seem chaotic and insane to those who don't know the truth, but those who have truly infiltrated the core of the Cult of Machines will understand the monks' unparalleled fervor for machines and knowledge!

Long before the invention of overload casting, a ritual existed within the Mechanicus to connect with one another and share knowledge.

This ceremony is conducted by the Great Sage standing at the center, while the rest of the explorer priests, knowledge-gathering monks, and storage servants stand on the floor beneath the cables and holes.

Their feet were connected to the circuit, and their minds were connected to each other by wires.

With the support of the Great Sage's electronic brain, which has been expanded countless times in capacity, all the stored knowledge will flow, like a flood of water washing over the rationality of every cultivator.

Some cultivators are destined to lose their self-awareness in the onslaught of knowledge, becoming mindless beings like mecha servants. But in order to acquire the supreme knowledge of the Myriad Machines God, every mechanical cultivator is prepared to sacrifice themselves...

The current overloaded word formation is just a different form of exchange conference, which has changed from the loss of will to the disintegration of the body.

The situation around the Void Shield Generator was observed by others. The Eldar's combined Void Shield arrays also needed to be overloaded, otherwise they would have to abandon a quarter of the Ark to save themselves.

The Combined Void Shield Array, a machine composed of hundreds of void shields of varying sizes, would surely infuriate any mechanical cultivator who saw it. Gu Jian would never believe it if it hadn't been built with reference to the orcs' construction methods.

The combined Void Shield array hummed, and lightning struck every corner of the space.

The Eldar, who are on the path of technological advancement, have done everything they can to squeeze every last bit of performance out of the Void Shield, but it is still not enough.

The Eldar engineers sighed in frustration, while the prophets discovered the gleaming void shield of the Exterminator.

The prophets said, "This is a human construct; perhaps they have some good ideas."

The technicians said, "Then use your scouting spell to observe human activity."

The psionic energy wove the scene, and the way the mechanical monk overloaded the Void Shield stunned the Eldar engineers and prophets.

In their culture, the way the mechanical monks overloaded the Void Shield Generator can only be described as...debauched.

The technician turned his head and murmured the name of the Eldar craftsman and the god of forging, Vaal, saying, "Val, what are those humans doing... This way of maintaining machines is unprecedented! Unparalleled! Prophet, can you understand the behavior of these humans? I have only read those classic texts of the Mechanicus, and have never understood their culture."

The prophet's behavior was even more appalling; she covered her slowly reddening cheeks with her hands and tucked her staff and the hem of her prophet's skirt between her tightly drawn legs.

Her voice trembled as she said, "I don't know, it's so terrifying... I feel like those weren't human warships, but a den of demons where the devil of desire gathered..."

The technician's mouth went dry as she listened to her explanation. The Spirit Race's sensitivity and craving for desire were even greater than that of humans. If they did not follow the path of suppressing their desires, it was only a matter of time before the Spirit Race descended into shameful depravity.

The technician quickly flipped through the book; he needed to provide a reasonable explanation for the strange behavior he was witnessing in order to suppress the bizarre thoughts that were forming in his mind.

For example, right now, he finds the flute he uses to manipulate the spirit bones increasingly alluring.

"Ah... I think this must be the way the Cult of Machines communicates with Machine Souls."

"I thought Machine Soul was just a lie told by the Cult of Machines to fool the bureaucrats of the Human Empire. Is that thing actually real?"

"I don't know! I don't know!" The Eldar technician closed the book, looking helplessly at the combined Void Shield array before him.

He was a pure spirit, and there wasn't a single piece of iron to be found on his body! He simply couldn't imitate the mechanical cultivators and cast words onto the equipment he possessed.

The Eldar technician took a deep breath and turned to look in the direction of the prophet. He saw her gently biting the tip of her staff with her teeth, and her hands, which were covering her eyes, were slightly parted.

What we all saw...

The Eldar technician felt his soul had been corrupted, and he knew he had to walk a different path to calm his heart after this mission was over.

Perhaps it's time to choose the path of a gardener; tending to flowers and plants is a great option.

“Prophet, I beg you to zoom in on this image. If the Machine Souls truly exist, I believe their perception of the world is not limited to mere touch; they must be able to see these humans…humans…” The Eldar engineer couldn’t finish his sentence, but the Prophet already understood his meaning.

As the drool-covered staff swept through the air, the image of the mechanical monk overloading the void shield generator was perfectly replicated next to the combined void shield array.

Just as the Eldar engineers had predicted, the combined Void Shield array was also unleashed with astonishing vitality! More energy was poured into the Void Shield enveloping the Ark, allowing the Ark to retain more of its structure.

This voyage, which had been propelled into the distance, finally came to a stop. The floor of the Void Shield Generator on the Exterminator was covered with a layer of holy oil about an inch wide, mixed with some black powder from the dead mechanical monks.

"Damn it..." Komi coughed twice, feeling as if his internal organs were being pressed against his back, just like when he once rode a roller coaster that was rapidly sliding down at Happy Valley.

After recovering, Koji immediately asked Fitaia where they were.

Fithia did not answer, but just stared blankly at the reinforced glass portholes of the bridge.

Komi followed her gaze and saw a magnificent view that he had never seen even in the subspace.

A flowing halo of gold and white enveloped a darker area, like a Gargantua black hole, only without the horizontal accretion disk disrupting the integrity of the darkness.

The bridge was illuminated by a halo of light, and everyone who had recovered from the violent voyage stared in awe at the beautiful sight before them.