"When has the Great Silent King ever met you! Do not speak such nonsense here; feigning a connection will not extend your pathetic life for long."
"So, Szarekh, how do you plan to deal with me? Come here and launch an attack personally? Or let your lackeys strike at me? Unfortunately, their strength might not be enough."
"Laughable creature. You are but a single cell of the Great Devourer. Even if the Great Devourer itself stood before the Great Silent King, it would not be so arrogant. And arrogance is precisely why you are about to die."
"Humorous, Silent King. Weren't you also quite panicked when you saw the Great Devourer? Panicked enough to abandon the territories you conquered outside the galaxy."
The Silent King, who had remained motionless and silent, finally had a reaction. His physical form was even more massive than that of the other two Phaerons.
Hapshatra of the Gilded Star continued: "What are you saying? Is this your delusion?"
"Don't be too despairing, Szarekh. I personally harbor no ill will toward you, but you gave me a strike previously, and I must settle that score. You can simply watch as the Tyranids eat the entire galaxy bare, while you and your pathetic race rot slowly, clutching a dream named 'Necrontyr'."
With that, Yuki destroyed the entire communication console.
Having sabotaged the reanimation protocol of the Tomb World, he could theoretically launch an all-out offensive now. However, the cost would outweigh the gain. The original objective was simply to allow the third fleet to successfully disengage from combat. Now, it could be said that an additional objective had been completed.
The Norn Emissary broke through the Necron blockade with ease. By this time, Stahl and the Lychguards and Triarch Praetorians had returned to defend. Their return meant that the Tyranid elite units Yuki had brought were completely wiped out. However, the number of Lychguards and Praetorians had also decreased significantly, and Overlord Stahl's armor was heavily damaged.
"Damned xenos!"
Facing the Necrons' fury, Yuki didn't care in the least.
"Alright, enjoy yourselves slowly."
The Norn Emissary's massive frame pushed past the enemies. Their Gauss weapons and other armaments had no way of stopping a Yuki who was intent on leaving. The destruction of the primary reanimation protocol was a massive blow to the entire dynasty.
Yuki reached the surface. The wings on his back unfurled, and Tomb Blades gave chase into the air.
"Stop chasing. Watch out for the wind, hahahaha!"
In this manner, Yuki successfully escaped the Tomb World. Currently, the entire planet was covered by Necron tombs, and Yuki had no intention of continuing the assault. He finally returned to the mothership of the third fleet and issued the order to retreat to the Malanthrope Queen. They needed to rendezvous with the first fleet ahead of schedule.
After personally witnessing the third fleet enter FTL travel under the guidance of the Narvhal, Yuki disconnected the link.
"I have to say, this remote control effect is quite good. I can't feel the commotion over there at all—Yuno, what are you doing?"
Yuno looked exhausted. "Since you couldn't feel anything, I was naturally performing body modifications. Don't worry, it's almost done."
"Don't do it! It hurts!"
The third sub-fleet had lost a significant amount of biomass and ships but had heavily damaged a Necron Dynasty. From an exchange-ratio perspective, it was within an acceptable range. However, Yuki was quite dissatisfied. He didn't like situations where the loss-to-kill ratio was nearly one-to-one and the losses couldn't be recouped by gains.
After struggling with Yuno for seven days and nights, Yuki finally had the time and energy to check on the main fleet.
"How are we doing now?"
"We're pinned down here. The Tau Empire has committed almost every remaining fleet they have."
G'row Jamon was defending this fortress planet. Currently, approximately seventy percent of the planet had been occupied. Yet, the loss of most of the planet hadn't dampened the Tau's fighting spirit. On the contrary, they threw themselves into battle even more frantically. Even the alien auxiliaries erupted with unprecedented resolve.
"Why are the Tau's allies so fierce too? Damn, I underestimated them."
"The situation now is that our losses are barely being covered by our gains. However, if we're dragged out here and wait for the Imperium of Man to attack, it'll be bad."
"Why hasn't it been taken yet?"
"I don't know. Let me tell you something funny: on some battlefields, the number of Tau actually exceeds the number of our bugs."
Yuki was speechless. There was really nothing to say to that.
"Maybe we should run for it."
"What?" Yuno frowned. She didn't like the idea of running at the first sign of trouble. It would be too embarrassing for the Great Devourer to be driven away by the Tau.
Yuki had his own considerations. "I've felt the Norn Emissary. If deploying one can't consume this world, it means the defenses here are even more solid than we imagined. We've wasted too much time. Even if we eat this place, the Tau Empire must have built new fortress worlds behind it."
Yuki always felt a sense of foreboding. In the Warhammer world, intuition played a significant role.
"Furthermore, the Imperial forces are advancing. The Tau forces on that front are retreating frantically, but it's hard to say if they'll erupt with terrifying combat power out of despair when facing us. If we end up being sandwiched between the Imperium and the Tau, we won't be able to swallow the entire Tau Empire even if we win."
Yuno understood, though perhaps not entirely. She did a quick calculation and found that the final outcome might indeed be similar to what Yuki described. The only issue was that Yuno didn't like focusing on these facts. She was the Great Devourer; what she wanted was emotion. Eating was to satisfy hunger, and right now, she wanted to devour all her enemies.
Yuki sensed Yuno's mood. He knew she was getting a bit carried away, but that was normal. He sighed and said, "Then let's take this world down. You, me, and Eleven—an all-out strike."
Only then did Yuno's expression soften. "Heehee, that's more like it."
Yuki helplessly accepted Yuno's kiss. He opened his body storage bay, which contained over a hundred powerful bodies, each with a strength roughly comparable to a Hive Tyrant. Now, Yuki was going to test exactly how many bodies he could control simultaneously.
Yuno's will echoed through the entire Hive Mind.
"Kill them, eat them! Tell them just how hungry we are! This is our future, this is our desire—turn their flesh into our flesh! Tell them that we love them deeply, and we will make us become one!"
The shrieks of the swarm echoed through both reality and the Warp. The Aether Fleet launched its most violent assault yet on the fortress world of G'row Jamon.