Warhammer: Empire Reboot

"No, no, no! Ilancia would never dare!"

The female assassin was so frightened that she waved her hands repeatedly as if she had been electrocuted, which made Lawson and Isa laugh again.

After the joke, Ilancia quickly composed herself.

"My lord, there is one more important matter."

“In recent days, arks of all sizes throughout the galaxy have submitted requests for an audience. Some arks have already arrived at the outskirts of Obolos, and more fleets are on their way through the network.”

"They all hope to pay homage to Her Majesty the Goddess as soon as possible."

Ilancia paused for a moment.

"The list is too long. The number of Arks whose identities have been confirmed so far already exceeds the capacity of the reception area."

"There are also many small exiled fleets, lost Eldar settlements, and independent Webpath colonies that wish to be granted an audience."

After a moment's thought, Lawson made a decision.

"There's no need to arrange them one by one."

"Notify all Arks that have submitted applications that they will be summoned for a general audience one week from now."

"Whether it's the large ark or the exiled fleet, each faction will only be given 10,000 entry slots."

“If you want to see their god, then obey my rules.”

After listening, Ilancia didn't find anything wrong with it.

"My lord, I will make arrangements immediately."

…………

The deepest part of the net.

Comoros, the City of Darkness.

The palace of the High Lord Asdubal Victor was situated in the shadow cast by the sun.

Victor leaned against the obsidian throne, his thin fingers resting on the edge of the armrest, his narrow eyes looking down at the two figures kneeling below the steps.

High-ranking governor Salkahn, Blood Gate Master Urkasi.

Both of them were in extremely disheveled condition.

Salkahn's armor was severely damaged; the left shoulder armor was completely gone, and there were traces of claws tearing open his chest.

Only four of Urkasi's six surgical arms remained, and one of them was still oozing black blood.

The Thief God Squad had 987 members when they set off.

Fewer than sixty people returned to Comoros.

The survivors were also seriously injured and were currently being held in separate interrogation rooms, where they were being examined one by one by the most reliable torture masters of the ruthless conspiracy.

No one can walk right up to Victor after a defeat.

Even if Salkahn was his confidant.

In the shadows surrounding the two, stood more than a dozen other Grand Masters and High-Rank Flesh Shapers from other conspiracy groups.

They have devised countless plans based on the failure of the Thief God operation.

Some wanted Salkar executed immediately so they could take over the fleet and territory he left behind.

Some people, however, are more concerned about the remains of the divine restraint device that Urkasi brought back.

Several Blood Gate Masters kept their eyes fixed on the bodies of the two losers, clearly already contemplating what kind of artwork they could dismantle them into to appease Victor's rage.

"Nine hundred and eighty-seven people."

Victor finally spoke.

"The Black Heart Conspiracy's best infiltrators, three hundred Nightmare Warriors, Karamok and his Shadow Squad, and a group of engineers who claim to be able to slice through the skin of the universe."

"As a result, you didn't even bring back a single hair of the goddess of life."

Victor's withered lips curled into a cold smile.

"However, I'm not surprised."

The several high-ranking officials who were preparing to watch the execution were slightly taken aback.

"If Lawson could swallow up the dark side of the Empire in a few years, he would have died at the hands of Chaos long ago if his stronghold could really be entered and exited at will by a thousand assassins."

"Your ability to reach the Life Research Zone proves that the Dimensional Scalpel and the preliminary intelligence were not the problem."

"The real problem is that he came back earlier than we expected."

Victor raised a finger.

The video recordings brought back by Salkahn were immediately displayed in the main hall.

In the scene, Isa and Ilancia sit on a soft couch until their appearances distort simultaneously, and their life and divinity are replaced by a purplish-black aura of desire.

Two Slaanesh demons were laughing wildly in the scene.

The expressions of the several lords who had just been mocking each other immediately turned ugly.

"Losing to something like this isn't shameful," Victor said.

Salkahn's grip on his kneecap loosened slightly.

But the smile on Victor's face vanished the next second.

Those eyes, colder than a venomous snake, suddenly narrowed, their gaze like two tangible ice blades, falling upon the two people below the steps.

"But I'm curious."

"Karamok has already stepped halfway into the Shadow Realm, but he still hasn't been able to escape."

"The Nightmare Warriors didn't even finish one round of attacks before the greenhouse was sealed off by the two great demons."

"You two, one has lost the Heart of Night, and the other drags around a body with only four surgical arms left..."

Victor leaned forward slightly: "How did you manage to come back alive?"

More than a dozen lords simultaneously placed their hands on their weapons.

More assassins from the sinister conspiracy emerged from the shadows, having already locked down all of Salkahn and Urkasi's escape routes.

If either of them hesitates even slightly when answering, or if there is a conflict between the memory test and their statement, they will not even be given a second chance to explain.

Salkahn raised his head.

"The Great Victor".

"Those two great demons are the reason we were able to escape alive."

“We didn’t fight them at all.”

"After the greenhouse was sealed off, I immediately activated the soul bombs inside all the Nightmare Warriors and ordered the outer personnel to throw all the remaining dark matter explosives into the palace."

A very slight commotion arose around them.

The resentment on Salkahn's face became even more pronounced.

"Those idiots thought I was going to lead them out."

"I had them form a defensive line to block the Great Demon, while I and Urkasi retreated to the coordinates left by the Dimensional Scalpel."

"Before the explosion, I kicked the last seven Nightmare Warriors between the two great demons."

"Their souls were torn apart simultaneously, briefly disrupting their subspace perception."

"Ulkashi took the opportunity to detonate the divine restraint device, causing the life divinity locking structure to overload in the opposite direction, blasting open an unstable crack."

Salkahn lowered his head.

“We rolled back through the crack like two reptiles with their tails cut off.”

His method of survival was to leave almost all his men in place to die, and then use their soul explosions to create an opportunity for retreat.

A high-ranking official from another conspiracy group smiled approvingly.

This is more in line with Comoros.

If Salkahn were to claim that he fought desperately to cover his men and led the remaining troops to break through the blockade of the two great demons, Victor would immediately order his brain to be cut open.

Urkasi raised his remaining four surgical arms at the opportune moment.

One of them carries a grayish-white memory crystal.

"This is the last footage recorded before the divine restraints were destroyed."

Beside Victor, a psionic slave, its limbs severed and sealed in a container made of black stone and spirit bones, opened its eyes.

He dared not unleash any power, and could only read information through the neural circuits directly connected to the memory crystal.

The scene changed again.

Nightmare warriors formed a defensive line in the greenhouse.

Ash emerged from a cloud of purple smoke, his claws slicing through several heavily armored bodies simultaneously.

Qianxian then lay on the back of another Nightmare Warrior, inserting his fingers into his mask and tearing open his skull like a piece of fruit.

Screams, maniacal laughter, and purple flames produced when the soul is extracted from the body.

Then, the screen shook violently.

Salkahn kicked a heavily wounded Nightmare Warrior toward Thousand Strings, then grabbed Urkasi and charged into the shadows.

Immediately afterwards, dozens of soul bombs detonated simultaneously, and the out-of-control subspace turbulence engulfed the entire greenhouse.

The video ends abruptly here.

Most of this record is true.

The Nightmare Warrior was indeed torn apart by the Great Demon, and the Soul Bomb did indeed explode.

Swarm intelligence simply rearranged the order of the images, removed the parts featuring Lawson, and then had the clones complete their retreat at a false point in time.

The survivors' memories were also identical.

Because the dozens of survivors who were responsible for undergoing independent interrogations were also clones created by the swarm intelligence.

They appeared to be unaware of each other's identities.