Warhammer: Empire Reboot

He only needs to sit here, drink coffee, and watch his enemies tear each other apart to achieve the best outcome.

Her other knee went down.

From one knee to two knees.

“I’ll do anything as long as you go and save Saim-Han,” she said.

She didn't think too much when she said those words.

But as soon as she spoke, she realized the weight of the words and all the possible interpretations Lawson might give them.

Lawson reached out, pinched her chin, and forced her to look up.

The pressure of her five fingers was just enough to prevent her from lowering her head without causing her pain.

Her chin was lifted, forcing her to meet his eyes.

This distance is too close.

She was kneeling, and he was sitting; the height difference meant her line of sight was level with his chest.

She had to look up to see his face.

"For a beauty, to act rashly and risk the lives of tens of thousands of my brothers?" He gently pressed his thumb against her jawline. "Was it worth it?"

Ilancia's lips moved slightly.

She couldn't answer.

Because she knew it wasn't worth it. At least from his perspective, it wasn't worth it to mobilize the fleet, the warband, the Bear Guard, and Agrippina's war resources for a prisoner, for a race that had once sent assassins to kill him, to fight a war that involved Chaos, the Necromancers, Slaanesh, and the Dark Eldar.

No rational ruler would agree to that.

Please!

She didn't know what else to say.

Strands of hair fell across her forehead, obscuring half her face.

The images on the tactical board continued to play, the light and shadow dancing on the ground in front of her knees, like a distant fire casting its reflection at her feet.

Then Lawson laughed.

That kind of laughter was very strange.

The smile starts at the corners of the mouth, climbs up little by little, and becomes something else when it reaches the eyes—softer than mockery, sharper than kindness.

He released her chin.

"never mind."

Ilancia didn't react.

Lawson leaned back in his chair, as if he had just made a trivial decision.

"Remember your promise."

"what?"

"I promised to go and save them."

Ilancia knelt on the ground, head tilted back, her eyes filled with despair and disbelief.

"Really?"

Lawson looked at her.

"Do you think I'm that bored? Why would I tease you with something like this?"

Ilancia's throat moved.

"Thank you."

Lawson stood up, walked past her toward the communications station: "Going to save a tribe that once tried to assassinate me is so damn righteous, I admire myself for it."

Ilancia knelt on the ground, and the tears in her eyes finally fell.

I don't know whether to cry or curse.

Lawson had already turned his head.

"Er Gou".

"The army is assembling; let's go to Saim-han to join the fun."

Outside the branch road of the network.

A silvery-white static force field unfolded layer by layer, and when Lawson stepped out of the light curtain, he found himself on an ancient spiritual bone platform.

Ahead, a hundred-meter-high gate to the spirit bones stands at the end of the passageway.

Ilancia stood beside him, looking at the door.

She knew it was here.

But seeing it with her own eyes, knowing that Lawson's army was standing right outside Saim-Han's back gate, still gave her an indescribable sense of oppression.

She glanced back.

The White Tiger Legion stood in formation on the left. Captain Bai Zhi stood at the very front, the White Tiger warriors arrayed with shields and spears, their white power armor gleaming like a row of blades awaiting their fall in the dim light of the Spirit Bone Platform.

The Xuanwu Battle Group stood in formation on the right. The tower shields formed a mobile wall. Armored Twenty-Two, Zhenyuan, bowed his head to check the power hammer's energy output.

Further on, six thousand bear guards. Five-meter-tall behemoths lined up in a square formation, the living metal layers on the anti-gravity centurion heavy armor reflecting the cold light of the spirit bone platform.

Further back, 30,000 combat troops stood on a makeshift assembly platform.

Quiet, orderly, without a single unnecessary breath.

“You really did manage to open up this network,” Ilancia said in a low voice.

“I’ve said it before. The Internet is the legacy of the ancient sages. You’ve lived here for tens of millions of years; tenants don’t represent landlords.”

Ilancia did not refute.

She used to. But now her people are bleeding on the ark. The verbal battle is no longer important.

"Open the door."

She knew that once she opened this door, it would mean letting a massive human army into Saim-Han's defenses.

Normally, this would be enough to convict her of being a traitor.

This moment is unlike any other.

Ilancia walked to the gate of the burial mound and took off her gloves.

Her palm pressed against a light-colored pattern on the left side of the door frame.

The bone felt cool to the touch, like touching a stone that still remembered the feeling of being alive.

She closed her eyes and began to sing.

The ancient sounds of the Eldar were not produced by the vocal cords. They began with chest resonance, were calibrated by the Soul Stone, and finally overflowed from the lips, containing both physical vibrations and psionic energy ripples.

This song is the key to the bloodline of the Crimson Moon Clan; only members of a specific bloodline can sing the correct resonance sequence.

Lawson stood behind her.

Thirty thousand assassins stood behind him.

Ilancia could feel those gazes on her back.

The human gaze.

Tens of thousands of eyes watched as a Spirit Woman sang a song they couldn't understand, opening a door to a place they shouldn't have known existed.

As she sang the seventh verse, the patterns on the surface of the spirit bone gate lit up one by one.

A thin crack appeared in the doorway, extending to both sides. The hundred-meter-high Spirit Bone Gate moved silently.

Behind the door came a cacophony of gunfire, alarms, psionic shrieks, and some kind of demonic whistle.

Lawson strode forward.

"Go in."

At the end of the Spirit Bone Passage, dozens of automated defense turrets rise from the walls.

Lock down Lawson, and also lock down the White Tiger striker behind him.

Ilancia stepped forward and shouted in Eldar, "Ceasefire! They are reinforcements!"

The turret did not move, and more defensive runes lit up.

The Ark's defense system detected Ilancia's bloodline privileges, and also detected a large number of non-Eldar armed forces crossing the Webgate.

Logically, this would be sufficient to trigger the purge agreement.

A psionic inquiry came from the depths of the passageway.

"You brought humanity."

Ilancia gritted her teeth: "They are the only reinforcements that arrived in time."

Lawson took a step forward.

Bai Zhi almost instinctively raised his shield, but Lawson waved his hand.

The next instant, his endogenous psionic energy field spread out, and his voice traveled through the tunnel, past the defensive turrets, and to the outer command node of the Ark and the multiple clan channels where they were engaged in fierce battle.

"I am Lawson, the Dark Lord of the Empire, here to provide support."

"If you don't need it, I'll leave now."

Inside the Hall of Saim-Han Bones, the twelve clan chiefs were debating the allocation of troops.

The projected images showed widespread warfare: the Chaos Landing Pod was widening its breach, the Necromancer Phase Assault Team had appeared on the Soulstone Retrieval Channel, the Dark Eldar raiders had just abducted hundreds of wounded from the Medical Dome, and the Slaanesh Archdeacon's flute was still pressing down on the Prophet Corps.

The argument stopped when Lawson's voice entered the hall.

All the clan leaders looked up.

Horace, the patriarch of the Crimson Moon Clan, changed his expression.

Ilanser brought up the entrance projection.

In the image, Lawson stands inside the gate to the spirit bone.