Chapter 581

The Nephilim Sector, the Calidra Battle Group is piercing through this silent expanse of stars.

The Calidra Battle Group is the vanguard of the Indomitable Crusade's First Fleet, its armament nearly equaling the combined strength of several battle groups.

They marched through the ravaged star regions of the Imperial Holy Domain, liberating world after world, engaging in brutal bloodshed against countless enemies.

But their true objective has always been the Nephilim Sector.

After the Great Rift opened, the Warp was filled with psychic distress calls; the Nephilim System was initially no different.

But as time passed, while distress calls from other systems grew louder, the Nephilim System gradually fell into silence.

Within the Nephilim Sector, there were no agonized screams, no desperate pleas for aid, no whispers of Warp-tainted filth—only a deathly stillness.

This situation drew the attention of Regent Primarch Guilliman, who dispatched Admiral Marun to lead the Calidra Battle Group into the Nephilim Sector to investigate its condition.

But shortly after entering the Nephilim Sector, Marun's forces encountered a series of bizarre phenomena.

First, the psykers aboard the ships began to suffer.

These psykers would periodically grow vacant and terrified, sometimes seizing like fish gasping out of water.

Many mortal psykers, astropaths, and navigators lost control and had to be executed or restrained.

The Adeptus Astartes Librarians fared relatively better; according to them, they could no longer perceive the Warp at all.

Some claimed the Warp had dried up into a stagnant pool of utter death; others insisted the Warp's storms still raged, but some dome-like barrier blocked the floodwaters of the Empyrean in this sector.

Even the most gifted prophetic Adeptus Astartes Librarians could see only a cold, silent void in their futures.

Then, problems emerged with the ships' Geller Fields and Warp navigation.

Some vessels experienced sudden, unheralded disintegration of their Geller Fields during Warp travel.

But stranger still, the ships stripped of Geller Field protection suffered no demonic incursions.

Some called it a miracle, a blessing from the Emperor and Saint Doraemon; even within the Ecclesiarchy, some openly proclaimed it as such.

Yet members of the Church of Saint Doraemon and the Battle Sisters privately told Admiral Marun this was no miracle—it was a complete anomaly.

The Warp engines themselves soon malfunctioned; Warp travel became increasingly difficult and arduous.

Members of the Adeptus Mechanicus claimed they were gliding over a lake that was drying up—the efficiency of their Warp engines was steadily declining, even with the presence of Saint Doraemon's Holy Knight Icons.

Many superstitious captains, terrified psykers, and anxious Astra Militarum urged Marun not to advance further.

But Marun refused to return empty-handed; he at least wished to uncover more concrete details.

The Mechanicus priests wholeheartedly supported this course, their twenty-two mechanical hands applauding, deeply curious about the phenomenon.

Eventually, one Mechanicus priest made a discovery—he detected an anomalous energy signature on a nearby planet, deeming it the key to the Nephilim Sector's anomaly.

A joint force of Astra Militarum, Space Marines, Battle Sisters, and Black Templars landed on the planet.

On Imperial star charts, it was marked as an agricultural world, home to billions.

But upon landing, the Imperial forces sensed something was wrong.

Too silent. Too hollow.

On the flattened continents, unharvested crops swayed in the wind, yet no one harvested them; dwellings stood empty, meals still sat on tables, spoiled and cold; machinery in agricultural processing plants continued to rumble; fertilizer guilds still pumped toxic compounds into the atmosphere; some unmanned farm vehicles still operated, driving endlessly across the perfectly flat terrain toward the horizon.

The entire planet was utterly devoid of life—as if everyone had simultaneously stopped what they were doing and vanished at the same moment.

Soon, strange afflictions began appearing among the Imperial forces: many Astra Militarum grew abnormally weary, weakened to the point of collapse, unable to move, and eventually ceased all motion and speech, frozen in place.

Psykers suffered even worse—they screamed of suffocation, descended into madness, and then committed suicide.

Even the Space Marines were affected to some degree, growing exhausted.

Roughly half of the Mechanicus priests also succumbed, showing signs of fatigue and weakness—those who venerated Omnissiah more than the Primordial Engine, and the Machine God more than Saint Doraemon.

Only the devout followers of Saint Doraemon among the Mechanicus, the Battle Sisters, and the Black Templars remained unaffected.

As if their fervent faith in the Emperor and Saint Doraemon protected them.

They soon discovered the source: on the agricultural world stood a spire forged from black stone.

Upon seeing the substance known as black stone, the Mechanicus priests immediately concluded it was a Necron artifact that had severed the Warp, disrupting their plans.

What followed confirmed their suspicion—the Necrons suddenly emerged from a pocket dimension and launched a dishonorable ambush against the Imperial forces.

Their target was strange: ordinary Astra Militarum seemed to hold no interest for them; they did not appear to seek to kill the Imperial troops.

Instead, they concentrated their fire to surround the Battle Sisters, Mechanicus priests, and Black Templars—those untouched by the black stone—as if attempting to capture them.

Fortunately, the Necrons' assault was poorly prepared, and at a critical moment, a Black Templar warrior suddenly declared he had received enlightenment from the Emperor, becoming an Emperor's Champion.

That Champion, wielding a black blade and clad in black armor wreathed in radiant, sunlike light, sacrificed himself to repel the Necron forces and cover the retreat of the main body.

On Admiral Marun's flagship, the Fist, Marun convened his war council.

"My warriors still hold faith—the Emperor's will undoubtedly protects us; His wrath awaits our release!"

"I will not forgive these vile xenos; I will not retreat. I swear by the Emperor and Sigismund!"

Said Marshal Kurts of the Black Templars, with unyielding resolve.

"The real problem is our increasingly difficult Warp travel—only one in ten Warp jumps succeeds. If this continues, we'll be forced to rely solely on sub-light engines." Spoke Captain Zeranthius, Commander of the Imperial Guard Shield Company.

Since the lifting of the restrictions, the Imperial Guard had joined various battle groups, engaging in galactic warfare.

They were less affected by the anti-Warp fields emitted by the black stone, but unlike the Battle Sisters and Black Templars, they did not seem protected by faith—rather, they appeared inherently adapted to thin Warp environments.

"This is a trap," said General Obolon of the Astra Militarum, tapping the table. "Admiral Marun, the further we advance, the deeper we sink into this quagmire—until we lose all chance of retreat."

Obolon's Astra Militarum had suffered the heaviest losses; his face was etched with exhaustion and pain—he naturally desired withdrawal.

Marshal Kurts of the Black Templars insisted on not retreating from the Nephilim Sector; Captain Zeranthius of the Imperial Guard hesitated; the Astra Militarum demanded immediate retreat.

All understood that Warp travel was worsening—if they retreated now, re-entry would be nearly impossible; if they did not retreat, escape would become equally difficult.

Admiral Marun, however, shook his head; his expression was not as tense as the others'.

He still held one final card.

"Before entering the Nephilim Sector, the Regent entrusted us with an object."

"It is the creation of the Archmagos Belisarius Cawl, said to be the product of research into Saint Doraemon—"

"Saint Doraemon is not a god," said Sister Superior Yeshuni, smiling at Admiral Marun.

Admiral Marun was a devout Ecclesiarchal believer, but he did not reject the Saint Doraemon faith—he even leaned toward the Doraemonist sect of over a decade ago.

That sect claimed both the Emperor and Saint Doraemon were true gods—and they were declared heretics by the Battle Sisters.

The Holy Maiden Jeanne personally led the purge; the Battle Sisters, always poor at debate, chose to argue with the most forceful of edicts: twenty-two days of golden, blazing fire consumed the sect's homeworld, leaving not even ash.

A bead of sweat rolled down Admiral Marun's brow—he was affected by the anti-Warp field, his mind slightly clouded, and he had spoken carelessly.

"It is said to be the product of research into Saint Doraemon's wisdom," Marun corrected himself promptly.

Had he not corrected himself, the Battle Sister might have silenced him with a bolter.

"You mean this artifact can resolve our current predicament?" asked Captain Zeranthius, his tone subtly skeptical.

As an Imperial Guard, he had tilled soil beneath the Imperial Palace—he did not underestimate Saint Doraemon's power—but he doubted whether humans could truly comprehend the wisdom of Saint Doraemon's artifacts.

Even the Imperial Guard's superhuman intellect remained utterly baffled when studying Saint Doraemon's devices.

"I even suspect that Archmagos Belisarius Cawl's invention was made precisely for this moment."

"The great Regent must have foreseen the situation within the Nephilim Sector."

Marun's voice carried devotion and fervor.

"I am more inclined to believe it is Saint Doraemon's will," said Sister Superior Yeshuni, blinking.

Marun nodded in quiet agreement; rumors had recently spread through the battle group—that Saint Doraemon had awakened.

Marun turned to the representative of the Mechanicus, his gaze asking whether preparations were complete.

The Archmagos' device was immensely complex; the battle group's Mechanicus priests could not comprehend its principles, and could only follow step-by-step instructions handwritten by Archmagos Cawl, requiring considerable time to prepare.

The Mechanicus priest nodded—everything was ready; all that remained was for Marun to issue the command and activate the device.

"Ladies and gentlemen, witness a great creation," Marun smiled at the war council.

Curiosity surfaced on their faces as they followed Marun to the very front of the bridge.

A vast viewport, spanning at least two hundred degrees, encircled the bridge; stars shimmered faintly in the void, and between them floated eight vessels of peculiar design, directly before Marun's flagship.

The eight ships hung in the void in a rectangular formation, each uniquely shaped: the four at the corners resembled right angles; the four along the top, bottom, left, and right resembled long bars.

The eight ships floated in the void like a broken doorframe.

At the center of the bridge, beneath the massive viewport, stood a door panel of pinkish-red wood—the doorframe had been removed, its whereabouts unknown; cables extended from the door's edges, connecting to a series of massive machines nearby.

"How has the Door been dismantled like this?! Isn't this sacrilege?" asked General Obolon of the Astra Militarum, voice tinged with fear.

He recognized the pinkish-red wooden door—it was the Door, one of Saint Doraemon's most iconic artifacts.

"Made by Archmagos Belisarius Dora Cawl? Then it's not sacrilege," Sister Yeshuni emphasized the "Dora" in the name.