Chapter 435: Thankfully, I

Zhou Yun wore a bamboo propeller and stood firm in the void, aided by the Adaptation Lamp, watching the drifting shards of steel.

How could the Steel Ring suddenly suffer such a massive disaster? Did a starship lose control and crash into the Steel Ring?

Malfunction? Accident? Or an attack?

And who launched the attack? The Black Legion? The Chaos Gods? Some xenos? Or even someone from within the Imperium?

And what was the purpose of this attack? Why strike so close to Mars?

To disrupt the Indomitus Crusade? The losses are severe, but not crippling.

Attack Mars? Sabotage its production? Or release the Dragon of Mars? But this attack still falls short.

Or is it aimed at Zhou Yun himself? That would be absurdly far-fetched—worst case, Zhou Yun could just use the Gate of Anywhere and flee.

Zhou Yun frowned, utterly unable to fathom the motive behind this.

As he thought, he swiftly pulled the Seeker's Staff from his fourth-dimensional pocket.

With a disaster this big, don't let my pet psychic Ogryn get killed.

Though he muttered this inwardly, Zhou Yun wasn't truly worried about Leina.

Leina's psychic skills were truly terrible—so terrible that even Kellaprin, the Chief of the Astropathic Choir, one of Terra's strongest mortal psychics and head of the Psychic Academy, had failed to teach her, nearly giving Kellaprin a heart attack.

But Leina's psychic magnitude was genuinely immense; with high-efficiency pills and a portable pyramid, even if she just smashed with psychic hammers, most Greater Daemons couldn't withstand her.

Besides, Zhou Yun had previously slipped her a bottle of Siegfried's Bath Essence—once used, it granted her a half-hour of true immortality.

The chance of Leina meeting an accident was low.

"Leina." Zhou Yun whispered softly, letting go of the staff.

The Seeker's Staff spun once in the void, pointing nowhere.

Zhou Yun's eyelid twitched slightly.

That meant Leina no longer existed in this world.

Either dead, or lost in the Warp, the Webway, or some other pocket dimension.

But it didn't matter—even if Leina died, it didn't matter.

Zhou Yun was the Master of the Domain of Corrosion and Destruction.

As long as he found her corpse, as long as her soul hadn't been dragged into the Warp, he need only raise a hand to resurrect her.

Even if she was utterly gone, her soul erased—so long as a single fragment of her body remained, Zhou Yun could use the Cloth of Time.

Yet deep inside, Zhou Yun felt a sudden, cold jolt.

His expression darkened; he sensed something.

He swiftly pulled the Truth-or-Folly Diviner from his fourth-dimensional pocket.

"Leina is dead."

Zhou Yun asked the Truth-or-Folly Diviner in a low voice.

A red circle leapt up, hovering midair, confirming his suspicion.

"The one who killed Leina utterly destroyed her body, leaving no trace."

The red circle leapt again, confirming once more.

Zhou Yun felt naked malice, direct and targeted.

The killer didn't want Leina resurrected—they wanted her dead, utterly and irreversibly.

Veins bulged violently on half his face; his teeth chattered with emotion; blood vessels at his temples twisted into grotesque ridges.

Since arriving in this galaxy, Zhou Yun had never felt such a clear, raw surge of anger within his soul.

When he first came, he'd made light of the darkness; as his power, status, and influence grew, and more artifacts were acquired, he'd almost forgotten the galaxy's true nature.

Now, hidden figures had shown him, with naked malice and brazen provocation, that—

This galaxy was dark, filled with vile, base intent.

Who? Who did this?

Zhou Yun's face twisted into something monstrous; he already knew the answer.

The primary villain of the Emperor's prophecy.

On an altar strewn with bloody corpses, Airebas closed his eyes, savoring the endless surge of rage from the Warp.

The One had been enraged—had realized the galaxy's darkness and chaos, had recognized fate's capricious cruelty.

The Warp responded—depraved, twisted, extreme emotions swelled within it.

Airebas had fulfilled his mission once more.

Just as he had once driven Kaen into Chaos and darkness, Airebas had replicated his past success: by severing a thread between The One and the material universe, he had stirred even more extreme, furious, dark emotions in The One, drawing The One closer to the Warp.

Next, Airebas only needed to slip beside The One, whisper soothing words—just as he had once persuaded Abaddon to lead Horus into the Serpent Temple—and The One would accept more of his power, and—

Suddenly, Airebas sensed something wrong.

The extreme emotions surging from The One were taking on a fixed form.

No despair. No darkness. No self-pity. Only rage—pure, unadulterated rage.

And this rage had direction—as if The One knew exactly who had orchestrated it all.

"Airebas." A low, furious roar echoed from the Warp.

The very essence of The One's rage stirred the Warp into chaos; a torrent surged violently, chasing the rage straight toward Airebas.

"Puhh!!" Airebas immediately severed the ritual, breaking his deep connection to the Warp.

But the backlash struck him full force—he felt his liver and gall rupture, blood spewing from his mouth.

Had it not been for the ancient blessings granted by the Four Gods, Airebas would have been ripped apart by the rage-fueled Warp surge.

"Why? How did The One know it was me?"

Airebas clutched his aching body, crying out in near-terror.

Zhou Yun exhaled a long, heavy breath, suppressing the swelling rage within.

This rage wouldn't vanish—it would fester inside him until it was unleashed upon the primary villain.

Who dares kill me? This is beyond recklessness!

The primary villain had shown Zhou Yun, in the most extreme, malicious way, the galaxy's darkness.

Yet though the galaxy was dark—

"But luckily, I'm a comedic character."

Zhou Yun reached into his fourth-dimensional pocket.

Leina felt her soul bathed in warm, gentle light.

She vaguely sensed her will crossing time and space itself, traversing all future and past events, stepping into a perfect, closed timeline.

Along that timeline, Leina's soul flowed toward the universe's end.

First, she sensed a profound, dark, self-destructive emotion rise—a black sun slowly ascended in the 30th millennium, using the souls of the vengeful as an altar, the Dark King raising Horus, the Emperor, and all humanity as sacrifice.

Then, in sequence, the mechanical chime rang twenty-two times; the Omnissiah, the Machine God, and the Primordial Power merged into one; billions of silver skulls cried out in birth, and the complete Machine God descended upon their wails.

Finally, eat, eat, eat, eat, eat—endless consumption. They devoured infinite chestnut buns, multiplying themselves, only to be devoured again by the dark, deep pocket, endlessly cycling, forever eating—until the Eternal Dragon bit its own tail.

These visions were too transcendent, far beyond Leina's comprehension, beyond the limits of her soul's capacity.

Leina saw them—but could not remember them.

In the end, she remembered only one thing: everything was destroyed; the galaxy ended in humanity's 30th millennium.

Then, after the end, a warm white light enveloped Leina, dragging her toward another incomparably radiant world.

The 22nd century.

The 22nd century lay before her.

Leina instinctively reached out toward that beautiful world.

The light took form; her body slowly reshaped itself.

The dark, malicious galaxy was left behind.

Bright, kind, beautiful—the 22nd century lay before her.

"You are…" A kind, grandfatherly voice suddenly sounded before Leina.

A plump, round old man appeared before her: "It's you."

"You're not supposed to be here yet. Why so eager?"

The round, grandfatherly figure said to Leina:

"If you come now, history will be disrupted."

Leina blinked, bewildered.

At that moment, a voice suddenly rang out:

"Psychic Ogryn, open your eyes. I'm Doraemon."

"Big Dummy Leina, open your eyes. I'm Zhou Yun."

"Still napping? Did you finish your work?"

Zhou Yun's voice suddenly came from behind Leina—from the dark, malicious galaxy.

She suddenly felt herself falling.

The radiant, beautiful 22nd century grew farther and farther away, until Leina could no longer see it at all.

"No! No! No!"

Leina desperately reached out—and then—

She jolted awake on a bed in the Forge General's mansion, Olympus Hive, Mars.

The single-use Cloth of Time dissolved into shimmering light upon her body.

Zhou Yun stood beside Leina with a smile.

Leina stared blankly at her own body; she vaguely remembered being killed by Lu Se,

then, then, then almost ascending to the 22nd century.

Leina's expression was dazed.

She realized Zhou Yun must have revived her using some method,

but for some reason,

Leina felt no joy at having survived death,

only a profound confusion,

as if she had been halfway to ascending the Golden Throne when the Emperor kicked her back down to work overtime.

(End of Chapter)