Sweeping the Szarakhan Necron Dynasty

The bridge of the Vengeful Spirit fell into brief silence.

Many of the Lunar Wolves’ senior officers showed anger on their faces.

The Silent King and his Guardsmen had provoked them.

Such an arrogant attitude was unacceptable to the proud Lunar Wolves.

The Lunar Wolves had swept aside countless civilizations across the Milky Way.

Now, they had even set foot on the path of expeditions into other galaxies.

They were determined to spread the Empire’s glory throughout the universe.

Yet these skeletal Necrons dared speak to them in such a tone.

Intolerable.

"Have us kneel before you?"

Horus’s tone was calm, but Loken sensed that something was wrong.

He had already noticed the flames of Kossonia’s fury gathering in the Primarch’s chest.

The current calm was merely the illusion before volcanic rage erupted.

"Yes. My lord is one of the great dead. He crossed the borders of the Milky Way and traveled to more distant places in search of the universe’s truth."

"Long ago, my lord began observing the Great Devourer. They came from other galaxies and may not even be creatures of this universe. My lord misled them time and again, luring them toward other universes and delaying their advance upon the Milky Way."

"What you see today is merely an insignificant portion. Only when you truly confront the Great Devourer will you understand how terrifying they truly are."

"Your courage and strength have earned my lord’s recognition. You have been permitted to exchange loyalty for his mercy."

"Under my lord’s command, you will surely serve an even greater purpose. Once my lord regains control of the Milky Way, your race will be qualified to survive as vassals. This is immense mercy and grace."

"You are merely remnants of the past." Horus spoke without the slightest courtesy. "This age belongs to humanity, not antiques like you."

"Humanity will never kneel before you. On the contrary, if you are willing to kneel, I may consider sparing you."

"Your race has no future anyway. Having lost both your souls and the ability to reproduce, your extinction is inevitable. It is merely a matter of time."

The Silent King’s face darkened at once upon his throne.

Though no expression could be seen on that metallic face.

Everyone could feel his fury.

If Raven had been here, he would certainly have explained the Silent King’s past to the Lunar Wolves.

Then they would have understood why Horus’s words had enraged this king so deeply.

The Silent King’s original name was Szarak, and he came from the Szarakhan Dynasty.

At the time, the dynasty’s ruler called himself the Silent King and inherited the position of head of the Council of Three Saints.

When Szarak ascended the throne and seized power, the Fearful Ones’ empire was already on the verge of collapse.

After losing the war against the Ancient Sages, the Fearful Ones had lost most of their territory.

Internal conflicts were everywhere.

They might very well have headed toward self-destruction.

At that time, the Fearful Ones came into contact with the C’tan. After careful consideration, Szarak decided to form an alliance with them.

The C’tan—the Deceiver—suggested that Szarak have the Fearful Ones abandon their flesh and souls and transfer themselves into metal bodies.

That way, the Fearful Ones would become stronger, escape the curse of short lives, and gain endless existence.

Ignoring the warning of his court advisor, Orikan the Diviner, Szarak agreed to this mad plan.

Only after Szarak was transformed into a new living-metal life-form.

Did he discover that it had all been the C’tan’s lies and deception.

They did not care about the Fearful Ones’ suffering at all.

They only wanted to trick the Fearful Ones into uploading their consciousness into metal bodies, then devour the abandoned souls and minds.

This way, the C’tan could both feast and turn the Fearful Ones into slaves for generation after generation.

Szarak had thus doomed the entire Fearful Ones race.

He turned his people into soulless machines, into slaves of the C’tan, into Voidlings.

After the War of Heaven ended, Szarak seized the opportunity created by the C’tan’s internal conflict and led a Necron uprising against them.

In the end, he defeated their masters, the C’tan, and shattered them into countless fragments.

Unfortunately, by then, newborn races created by the Ancient Sages, such as the Aeldari, had already risen.

The Necrons had been exhausted by wars spanning hundreds of millions of years and were no match for these newborn races.

With no alternative, Szarak could only order the Necrons to retreat into their tomb worlds and sleep, planning to awaken sixty million years later.

He predicted that after such a long time, the races created by the Ancient Sages might decline through infighting and indulgence.

Then they could seize the opportunity to defeat them and rebuild their hegemony over the Milky Way.

Szarak did not sleep.

After destroying the master protocol that allowed him to control the entire Necron race, he led the Szarakhan Dynasty’s legions beyond the Milky Way.

Szarak did this because he had always blamed himself.

He believed that it was his fault the Fearful Ones had been extinguished.

So he chose self-exile, both as atonement and to seek a way to restore the Fearful Ones.

Horus’s words had undoubtedly stabbed straight into his heart and torn open his scars.

"You have angered my lord." The Silent King’s Guardsman spoke in an icy voice.

"So what?" Horus replied calmly, completely unafraid.

"You will pay the price, pitiful creature. When the Fearful Ones swept across the Milky Way, your race was still a band of Monkeys hiding in trees."

"Do you truly think you are qualified to challenge an ancient race? You and the young race behind you will pay an unimaginable price for your arrogance."

The other party wanted to continue, but Horus rudely cut him off.

"We will know the outcome soon enough. We shall see who pays the price."

Having said that, Horus turned to the communications officer.

"Reverse-lock their location. While destroying the swarm, wipe out this race that is destined for extinction."

"Arrogant." Leaving behind that one word, the Silent King’s Guardsman cut off the communication.

The talks between the two sides ended on bad terms.

If they met again, blades would surely be drawn.

Yet none of the Vengeful Spirit’s senior officers were dissatisfied with this outcome. Instead, they were quite pleased.

"We should never seek to please xenos in any way." Abaddon shouted. "The only thing we should do is destroy them completely."

"Such arrogant creatures truly deserve a lesson." Toqadon strongly agreed with Abaddon.

Sanguinius also echoed the words of the others.

"There is no need whatsoever to cooperate with these metal xenos. They bear humanity no goodwill. I even suspect they would be delighted to see humanity perish in an instant."

"Then let us destroy them first." Little Horus said murderously, "The sight of those bastards acting so high and mighty infuriates me."

"We have locked onto their location."

As the Council of Four Kings discussed the matter, the communications officer brought good news.

Abaddon immediately looked at Horus. "Let war begin, Commander. Let those creatures know that their era has passed."

"I support it." Toqadon nodded.

"I would be glad to serve as the vanguard, Commander." Sanguinius stepped forward.

Horus looked at his sons and saw flames of anger burning in their eyes.

They longed to destroy the one who called himself the Silent King.

After considering it carefully, he nodded.

"Then mobilize. In the name of the Wolf God, wipe them out completely."

Thus, war erupted between the Lunar Wolves Legion and the Szarakhan Necron Dynasty.

Szarak could become the head of the Council of Three Saints because he was the ruler of the Szarakhan Dynasty.

The Szarakhan Dynasty had been the most powerful dynasty among the Fearful Ones, possessing the greatest number of forbidden weapons.

No other Necron dynasty could compare to it.

Under the predetermined course of fate, the Lunar Wolves Legion would never have been qualified to challenge the Silent King.

Unfortunately, with Raven’s help, the Empire had undergone a complete transformation and become a power capable of launching expeditions into other universes.

Though the Lunar Wolves were merely one of the twenty Astartes armies.

Their cutting-edge technology and destructive weapons were no weaker than those of the Szarakhan Dynasty, and perhaps even surpassed them.

A fierce war broke out between the two sides.

The Imperial fleet and the Necron fleet fought void battles across a span of thousands of light-years, along with boarding actions and counter-boarding actions.

At times, they even dragged in the Tyranid swarm, creating a chaotic three-way melee.

Yet relying on overwhelming military might and advanced technology, the Lunar Wolves Legion gradually gained the upper hand.

They destroyed Necron warships one by one.

They used forbidden weapons of space, dimensions, and time to utterly destroy the living metal.

Tearing it apart.

Leaving it unable to regenerate.

The Szarakhan Dynasty’s legions were gradually exhausted by the war.

In the end, the Lunar Wolves Legion surrounded the Silent King’s flagship, The Silent Star.

The Silent Star was enormous, comparable to a moving planet.

It was said to have been built with the C’tan’s assistance, possessing terrifying firepower and defenses.

The Imperial fleet destroyed the flagship’s escort fleet, leaving only The Silent Star and encircling it heavily.

The Silent Star’s defenses were exceptional.

Even when the Imperial fleet used weapons of space, dimensions, and time, they struggled to inflict any meaningful damage.

A 2D Space foil capable of collapsing space-time.

Created only a few dozen square meters of 2D Space before it was forcibly restored.

Antimatter, of which only a few kilograms could tear a planet apart, produced merely a negligible explosion and blasted several deep craters into the surface.

The Time Acceleration beam, capable of instantly decaying a person, achieved little as well.

No matter how many times time was accelerated, The Silent Star remained unaffected.

It was as though eternal magic had been cast upon the warship.

No matter how the years changed, it would never be eroded by the power of time.

With no other choice, they could only launch a boarding operation and use landing craft to enter The Silent Star’s interior.

This was the Astartes’ specialty.

They had been created for close-quarters slaughter.

After another round of concentrated bombardment, a gap appeared in The Silent Star’s shields.

Then, large numbers of assault craft were launched into The Silent Star’s interior.

Abaddon, Toqadon, and the other senior officers each led teams to destroy The Silent Star’s vital facilities.

Horus personally led a guard unit to find Szarak, the Silent King, and settle the feud between them.

After a bitter battle, Horus found him.

Szarak sat upon the Throne of Three Saints.

Around the throne stood the Necron race’s most elite forces—the Necron Guardsmen.

The Gene Engine within Horus conducted a comprehensive analysis of Szarak.

The Throne of Three Saints upon which Szarak sat was a terrifying weapon created from countless advanced technologies.

It was powered by fragments of the C’tan, the Burning One Nyadra Zasha.

The cloak upon his body was also forged from C’tan alloy.

The Scepter of Glory in Szarak’s hand possessed extraordinary power as well, able to channel the C’tan’s strength and release devastating beams.

The pair of Three Saints stelae surrounding the throne were equally remarkable. They could draw upon the throne’s power to project a formidable energy weapon known as the God-Spear of Wrath.

"I never expected that, during the time I was away from the Milky Way, such a remarkable race would arise."

The Silent King looked at Horus but did not speak.

All his words were projected through psychic thought-waves, sounding directly in Horus’s mind.

"You are already relics of the past." Horus strode toward him. Guardsmen attempted to stop him along the way, but his personal guard rushed forward to intercept them, and both sides became locked in combat.

Horus passed through the fighting and walked toward the Silent King.

Every Necron Guardsman who tried to stop him was torn to pieces by claw and warhammer.

The Throne of Three Saints released light, and the Silent King waved his hand, unleashing terrifying annihilation beams one after another.

Unfortunately, such things could not harm a Primarch.

A Primarch possessed the power of a god. Everything unleashed by the Throne of Three Saints could destroy the universe, yet it could not destroy a Primarch, nor could it even break Horus’s defenses.

Realizing this, the Silent King rose to meet him in battle.

It had been a long time since he had fought at close range like this.

Yet the memories of his training in youth had not faded in the slightest, as though they had happened only moments ago.

His body had been forged from the finest living metal, a near-perfect mechanical masterpiece.

Its fully synthetic logical neural systems and sensory structures were advanced and precise, leaving all flesh-and-blood bodies far behind.

The Silent King charged toward Horus.

Everyone believed this would be a battle that shook heaven and earth.

Even Horus’s personal guard believed so.

But what happened surpassed everyone’s expectations. Horus swung his heavy warhammer and brought it down violently.

The first blow shattered the Silent King’s scepter, and the savage force drove him to his knees.

"This is what you wanted, xenos." Horus roared, his voice barely restraining his anger. "Your era has passed, and with a mere wave of my hand, I can sweep you into the rubbish heap."

The Silent King was furious. He raised his head, his oily green eyes blazing with rage.

But in the next second, Horus’s claw pierced through his chest.

"Deny every possibility of his survival. Define it as zero."

Command received. Initiating causal modification sequence. Setting target survival probability to zero.

And just like that, the Silent King, who had once dominated the galaxy, fell.

While Horus held off the Tyranids and wiped out the Szerakhan Necron Dynasty, Vulcan, the Primarch of the Salamanders Legion, arrived on Cadia.

This was the outpost before the Eye of Terror.

Beyond it lay the Eye of Terror.