Warhammer: Empire Reboot

It was not gently soothed by some divine power, nor was it naturally diluted by the warp tides; rather, it was crushed to death by some savage, almost brutal force.

The physical model developed using swarm intelligence allowed Lawson to clearly see every detail of the changing curtain.

The actual structure of this region became even more solid after Angron was completely erased than it had been before the Great Rift erupted.

It's abnormally sturdy.

Prior to this, Swarm Intelligence had given a dangerous conclusion: the space barrier of Agrippina primary star is continuously thinning.

Over the past year, Lawson has turned this place into the largest demon slaughterhouse in the entire galaxy.

The system is capable of completely annihilating demonic souls.

This in itself violates the most fundamental warp loop logic of the Warhammer universe.

Normally, after a demon dies, its soul and essence return to the warp, where they reunite after a long period of time.

But the demons killed by Lawson will not return.

They were intercepted, purified, and drained by the system, leaving not even an echo.

Thus, an ever-expanding "low-pressure energy zone" appeared on the projection surface of the subspace onto the Agrippina sector.

Just like fluids always flow back to areas of low pressure.

The more the real universe is emptied, the more frantically the energy tides from the subspace side will impact this area.

Over time, Agrippina's veil of reality was stretched thinner and thinner.

This is also why the World Eater Warband was able to tear open a massive rift capable of summoning Angron with just one regular blood sacrifice.

Following this logic, the situation should have been even worse after Angron was completely wiped out by the system.

The Primarch's soul essence far surpasses that of a high-ranking Archmage.

With his death, an unprecedented super vacuum should have appeared above Agrippina. Warp energy would have surged wildly into this vacuum, the reality barrier would have been shattered, and the entire Forged World might even have been dragged into the warp.

But the opposite is true.

The crack has closed.

The curtains have been reinforced.

Lawson's brain interacted rapidly with swarm intelligence, with tens of millions of computing nodes repeatedly deducing the problem within fractions of a second, quickly resolving the paradox.

The answer comes from black holes.

The system extracted Angron's soul and the origin of the warp, thus creating a vacuum.

At the same time, Lawson ignited five compressed miniature black holes at that coordinate point.

Black holes represent extreme values ​​of the physical laws of the real universe.

Mass, density, gravity, and spatial curvature were all pushed to the extreme.

When the five black holes swallowed the physical remnants of Angron and closed, they did not tear outwards, but rather collapsed inwards.

This collapse violently compressed the space edges torn open by the blood sacrifice, and the already thin, cicada-wing-like veil of reality itself, all toward the central origin.

It's like a piece of rag being torn with a big hole. Someone is too lazy to sew it up, so they use a 10,000-ton hydraulic press to compress all the fibers around the hole into an incredibly dense knot.

Subspace tides are still crashing into this vacuum region.

However, what it crashed into was no longer a thin veil of reality, but a layer of physical armor that had been folded, compressed, and locked countless times by the gravity of a black hole.

Lawson used the most unreasonable laws of reality in the universe to weld a steel plate, which even a great demon couldn't bite, onto the surface of this warp wound.

Black rain fell on his shoulder armor, sliding down along the patterns of the living metal.

Lawson chuckled softly.

The thrill of crushing extreme magic with extreme physics satisfied him more than mere slaughter.

Just then, a system notification appeared deep within my retina.

[Hint: Slay the Khorne Demon Primarch, Angron.]

Settlement complete.

[Gained: 1,000,000 points of subspace energy.]

Lawson's pupils contracted slightly.

One million points.

Angron's soul value alone is almost equivalent to that of several top-tier archdemons.

But what Lawson really wanted was not the energy numbers.

The true spoils of war are the law-based characteristics that the system can extract after such a conceptual-level life form is killed.

The prompt will continue scrolling.

[Extracting special law characteristics: the limits of mechanics.]

[Source: Remnants of physical divinity within the Angron Demon Primarch form.]

Lawson's consciousness sank, and he began to read the underlying data.

Two seconds later, he opened his eyes.

A knowing glint flashed in his eyes.

He finally understood why Angron, even after losing his footing on the ground, was still able to throw two hundred tons of tank wreckage with just a swing of his arm.

Why can the gravitational balance be briefly shaken when the other party is pulled and fixed by a black hole?

"The limits of mechanics".

This trait is not simply about increasing muscle mass, nor does it make bones harder.

It controls the "transmission of kinetic energy".

When a normal living being throws a punch, the force travels from the friction of the soles of the feet, through the leg muscles, the rotation of the hips, the torque of the waist and abdomen, and the axis of the shoulder joint, all the way to the fist.

During this process, joint cushioning, fascia deformation, reaction force cancellation, and posture loss consume a large amount of output.

Even genetically enhanced warriors cannot completely eliminate these losses.

But the "mechanical limit" is possible.

It enables almost 100% kinetic energy transfer between the organism's "power engine" and "point of action".

The recoil will not cause injury to yourself.

The joints will not be worn down by excessive stress.

Posture is no longer a limitation.

Even when suspended in mid-air, upside down, without a fulcrum, or even when the body is torn at an angle that violates the conventional force exertion structure, it can still completely convert the body's bioelectric energy, muscle contraction force, and skeletal leverage effect into destructive force.

This is Angron's physical godhood, not a skill, but a rule.

Lawson marked this trait as a top priority reinforcement in the swarm mindset library.

Then he looked at the next piece of loot.

[Core concept extracted: Butcher's Nail.]

The moment the system notification landed, a dark red light appeared above Lawson's palm.

It has no fixed shape; it resembles a constantly twitching nerve knot, or several red-hot, bent metal nails tangled together.

It has no physical weight, yet it causes the surrounding air to cool down suddenly and the light to distort slightly.

Lawson stared at it.

In most people's minds, the Butcher's Nail is a neuromechanical device created by the Nukelian High Riders.

It removes the cerebral cortex, inserts nerve centers, and transforms gladiators into bloodthirsty beasts through pain and reward/punishment mechanisms.

But the Butcher's Nails on Angron's body were no longer made of that original metal.

After he ascended to demonhood, his mortal body perished, and his original mechanical structure dissolved along with it.

What floats in Lawson's palm at this moment is a conceptual entity reforged from the subspace.

It is a fragment of the laws of "rage" and "pain".

It is itself a piece of highly toxic code that can be written into the very depths of one's soul.

"The Law of Extreme Pain..."

Dozens of insidious uses immediately flashed through Lawson's mind.

In the Warhammer universe, the more powerful the spellcaster, the more acute their soul perception.

High-level psionicists, Eldar prophets, Tzeentch wizards, and Chaos Lords are able to foresee the future, detect warp waves, and guide psionic tides, all thanks to their highly open mental structures.

The more sensitive one's mental structure, the more afraid one is of conceptual pain.

This thing doesn't require physical defense penetration.

As long as the pain law of "Butcher's Nail" is driven into the depths of the soul, it can overwhelm reason in a millionth of a second, sever the spellcaster's connection with the warp, and cause their brain to self-destruct amidst frenzied electrical signals.

"No implants."

Looking at the red light in his palm, Lawson gave his judgment.

"To make soul-destroying weapons."

He clenched his five fingers together.

The dark red light cluster was swallowed by the system's core isolation library.

"It's better than bombs and light spears for targeting high-level wizards and chaos lords."

Immediately afterwards, a tsunami of information flooded into Lawson's brain.

[Intercepted: Angron's complete soul memories and combat experience.]

Ten thousand years of slaughter.

Conquest through the eyes of fear.

Muscle memory from countless swings of the giant axe.

Experience in fighting high-ranking demons, the Titan Legion, and the Astartes Chapter.