Under unified command, the manpower and resources of the entire planet were mobilized. The scale of construction they achieved was astonishing.
In just two weeks, a grand and magnificent cathedral rose from the very heart of the square.
For its design, Roya directly drew inspiration from his memory of the Milan Cathedral. Enlarging its proportions and strengthening its load-bearing structure, he successfully recreated that timeless Gothic masterpiece upon Pirate Star.
Yet unlike the Milan Cathedral of memory, built from fine stone, this cathedral's entire structure was cast from fourth-generation seastone alloy, its strength tens of thousands of times greater than common stone.
Upon the inner and outer walls, Roya himself used spiritual perception to carve into the unyielding alloy the complete history of Pirate Star's glorious struggles—against the Necron harvesters of the void and countless other enemies.
As in Milan, here too more than six thousand statues adorned every wall and column, their seastone forms imbuing the cathedral with awe and sanctity.
Within the central hall stood a towering five-meter statue of Roya himself, carved from pure seastone.
Thanks to seastone's natural suppression of psychic power, these six thousand statues together formed a miraculous shielding lattice—an immense psionic barrier that repelled external warp energies.
Roya's tests showed that only a force equivalent to triple a stellar-class warp blast could fully shatter this barrier and harm those within.
But seastone did more than suppress psychic power—it was also an excellent conductor of faith.
Through the central statue, the prayers of the devout would flow seamlessly into Roya's spiritual projection, without fear of interception by the Chaos Gods.
What's more, the resonance of thousands of statues created a high-frequency vibration. Harmless to mortals, it shredded spiritual corruption, banishing any taint or warp-born filth that dared intrude into the cathedral.
If needed, Roya could even channel faith-energy back into the statue through the warp, manifesting as a god descending to earth. The cathedral's exorcising force would then expand to cover the entirety of Pangeae City.
"This cathedral shall be named the Holy Cathedral."
With its completion, Pirate Star finally possessed a bastion to resist the corruption of the Four Chaos Gods.
While the Holy Cathedral could not withstand the gods themselves, no champion, daemon prince, or even chosen of chaos could cause true upheaval within its protection.
Should the Chaos Gods descend again, Roya could use his statue as a beacon, enabling rapid warp-transit and immediate response.
Vegapunk, law, and the corrupted defenders and civilians were all placed safely within the cathedral's underground sanctums.
There, with constant prayers and the faithful's devotions, the vibration of belief would steadily purge the corruption from their souls, allowing them to reclaim their true selves.
Thus, Roya no longer needed to stand guard over Vegapunk and law—he could leave them to recover in retreat.
"The sudden arrival of the Four Gods must be directly linked to my defeat of the Silent King! For ages, the galaxy's life force was oppressed and harvested. When the Silent King fell, that energy rebounded violently, drawing Chaos's gaze."
"That means both Oceanus Star and Primal Star urgently need their own defenses against spiritual erosion and corruption."
"Primal Star is less concerning—the natives' souls are already among humanity's strongest, and their natural devotion to me grants them powerful resistance."
"But Oceanus Star lacks such resilience. I must go there quickly and raise another cathedral. Their faith in me is weak, so only long preaching and displays of miracles will accelerate belief enough to form true protection. I'll have to remain there for a time, overseeing the spread of faith myself."
Having resolved this, Roya no longer lingered on Pirate Star.
He gathered tens of thousands of tons of seastone alloy and seastone from the imitation pyramid's stores, loaded them aboard a fleet of ten massive ships.
Though built for the sea, under Roya's psionic command they needed no crew. He drove them into the void itself, surging toward Oceanus Star.
At his current psychic strength, he could sustain the fleet at sevenfold lightspeed—nearly fifty percent faster than the pre-upgrade Pluton.
If he unleashed his full might, that velocity could spike to a terrifying fifteenfold lightspeed—but only briefly, and at grave cost to his combat readiness.
…
The Silent King awoke with a violent start from a strange, suffocating slumber.
He had no time to wonder how such a trance could seize a soul as strong as his. Instead, he turned immediately to the alarm echoing in his spirit.
It was the failsafe he had placed for Roya—if it triggered, it meant Roya had entered his star system!
Ecstasy surged through the Silent King. Though he had been several systems away from the Void Throne, fate had delivered Roya into the same system as him—a fortune beyond measure.
From the central command hive ship, three hive-fleet vessels unfurled their living sensors. Advanced bio-pulse waves rippled silently outward, sweeping across the star system.
Instantly, Roya's presence was locked and reported into the Silent King's mind.
"Alone? With ten ships laden with supplies?"
"They don't even have warp-drives?!"
"Then… Roya dragged those ships across the void by sheer psychic force?!"
The hated enemy who had ruined him, now staggering from severe psychic strain, had come right to his doorstep.
In that instant, the Silent King's fury nearly devoured his reason.
And yet—through the hive fleet's collective hunger, he could also feel it.
A ravenous, insatiable appetite—for the vast cargo within those ten ships.