Having vanished from sight, Vashtorr returned to the surface of Wyrmwood, arriving at the foot of a desecrated tower.
These mysterious and terrifying black spires were massive mechanical labyrinths, constructed entirely of an unfathomable number of interlocking gears. The smallest among them were as delicate as a mortal's cranium, while the largest defied the limits of imagination, resembling the tusks of primordial leviathans. This spectacular and grotesque vista was the literal manifestation of Vashtorr's chaotic essence made manifest.
The Chaos Smith ascended the spiral staircase with the measured pace of a casual stroll. The steps shimmered like ripples of flowing mercury one moment, transformed into charred corpses bolted together with brass rivets the next, and at times dissolved into false theorems scribed in oil and blood. Each step was unique, as if bearing the deepest secrets of the cosmos, leading directly into the heart of the great gears.
Gear-shaped planes collided violently, rolling frantically between towers choked with toxic smog, accompanied by a deafening, metallic screech.
As Vashtorr reached the spire's pinnacle, he witnessed the fate of the planet nearest to Wyrmwood. The wretched world was on the brink of disintegration; Wyrmwood's preternaturally powerful gravitational pull acted like an invisible titan's hand, ruthlessly tearing and crushing the orb. In the void above, the Chaos fleet engaged both the Necrons and the Adeptus Mechanicus simultaneously.
"Praise be to the steam, the iron, and the agony that grants me these gears."
For a moment, Vashtorr felt a flicker of grim appreciation. Here were his two favorite races, Humanity and the Necrons. They were fragile, ignorant, and easily led astray, yet possessed of a boundless, desperate creativity.
As Wyrmwood began to rend the planet, Vashtorr swung his hammer, striking the black tower in a rhythmic pulse. The eldritch spire began to invert, revealing a new perspective to him, the location of every Necron blackstone device (anti-matter node-matrix) on the world.
The infernal engines across the planet groaned into life. Blasphemous pollutants dripped from Vashtorr's maw, and Warp-infused exhaust hissed from his metallic throat, coiling like serpents toward every Necron device within his sight. These infernal apparatuses allowed him to corrupt the nearby spires; without this influence, the Necron null-field would have caused the Daemons to dissolve the moment they manifested.
Even more exhilarating for Vashtorr was the tide of worship surging toward him from every corner of this ignorant war zone. Destructive acts born of technology were rampant. So many "enlightened" souls had succumbed to his agitation, or had simply allowed themselves to fall through their own misguided faiths and ideologies.
Ignorance of their own creed had once been the bane of these mortals; yet for those who believed their faith to be pure, that very purity had never once shielded them. In this moment, Vashtorr felt as though he had truly ascended to godhood.
…
Facing Szarekh's Necron fleet and the sudden emergence of Wyrmwood, radiating endless, profane energy, Archmagos Cawl felt his cogitator-auxiliaries bordering on thermal overload.
As a close confidant of Roboute Guilliman, Cawl had pored over countless after-action reports from the Ultramarines involving various Chaos artifacts. He understood the dampening effect of blackstone on psychic phenomena, and he knew that this polarity could be reversed. However, he had never calculated the consequences of such a massive anti-warp field being completely inverted.
The reality was now stark. Although he did not know exactly what had transpired on the dying nodal planet below, it was evident that the blackstone constructs had been corrupted. Warp-signature readings had already exceeded the limits of his ship's sensors.
One look at that desecrated planet was enough. If the corruption of a single blackstone site could allow Chaos to summon such a blasphemous world into realspace, the entire Pariah Nexus would become a second Eye of Terror if every Necron device fell.
In fact, that very cataclysm was currently underway.
The Imperium's situation was dire, yet surprises were never-ending. As a hidden pillar of the Imperium, Cawl's loyalty to the Emperor was beyond reproach, but even he felt the weight of exhaustion. In terms of technology, the Imperium lagged behind the Necrons, and the rate of attrition on the battlefield was accelerating. A third of Szarekh's fleet consisted of veterans who had followed him from the intergalactic void, battle-hardened warriors wielding technology that eclipsed that of the Imperium.
The profane planet anchored at the heart of the Chaos fleet caused Cawl even greater irritation.
Following a sequence of static bursts that would have sounded like a harsh rasp to mortal ears, Cawl decided to intervene personally. Although the Zar-Quaesitor remained unrepaired, it did not mean Cawl was without recourse.
As the most renowned Archmagos of the Adeptus Mechanicus, Cawl's archeological exploits were unparalleled, bolstered by his relationship with Guilliman which allowed him to frequently request Ultramarine assistance. Cawl transmitted a cryptic, complex command. Within minutes, a massive gravitational singularity manifested abruptly behind the Imperial fleet.
Every combatant in the theater took note. Even Vashtorr, amidst the corruption of the blackstone spires, felt the weight of a technological power and cast his gaze out from the heart of the tower. Blue flickers of energy leaped and danced as a shockwave of power bloomed.
A colossal metallic sphere appeared at the rear of the Imperial fleet, its systems grinding into slow, heavy operation. This was Cawl's trump card.
Cawl did not know its original designation, but it was now known as the Fortress of Enlightenment. It was an artificial celestial body from the Dark Age of Technology.
In essence, it was a planet-sized battle station. It shared a lineage with the Titan-class ships constructed by Axion, but even Axion had never realized that during the late Dark Age, after the Men of Iron had departed, the Titan-class experimental designs had actually been realized in physical form. However, the techno-barbarians of that era had not followed the Federation's designs; they did not build vast life-support systems or multi-functional hubs within the hull. Instead, they had simplified the internal structure, treating it purely as a super-weapon.
Bereft of the Men of Iron, these techno-barbarians utilized cruder control interfaces. It was only because of this simplification that Cawl was able to operate such an ancient and gargantuan relic.
These techno-barbarians possessed their own unique technological advantages. The Fortress of Enlightenment did not utilize Warp travel; instead, it employed a form of warp-drive (curvature) technology. While not as swift as traversing the Immaterium, and requiring massive drive-arrays that were nearly impossible to mount on standard Imperial vessels, it possessed one singular trait: it was entirely untainted by the Warp.
As a violent energy reaction spiked across the giant fortress, several matter-singularities suddenly enveloped the center of the Necron and Chaos fleets.
Had Axion been present, he would have instantly recognized the weapon: a Dark Matter Singularity Chain Reaction Device.
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