Chapter 602

On the Inevitable Conquest, the flagship of Storm King Imotekh, once destroyed by the Supreme Grand Marshal Helbrecht of the Black Templars and later rebuilt by Imotekh's Necron tomb-techs,

Imotekh's will reawakened, his living metal slowly reconstructing his body,

As a Phaeron, Imotekh naturally did not die easily; his resurrection protocol was far more advanced than most Phaerons', enabling rapid bodily reconstruction,

In the span of a blink, Imotekh's body regained most of its form, his logic brain fully restored, restoring his thoughts to swift, precise, and logical clarity.

Imotekh felt little anger over his defeat,

Too many unforeseen events, too many illogical occurrences had just transpired,

And Imotekh had never been skilled in combat—not even during the Necrontyr era, when he suffered from severe rheumatism that crippled his fighting ability,

He relied instead on gathering intelligence, logical analysis, to predict opponents' moves, lure their attacks, and manipulate their actions to secure victory,

This created a flaw: when facing enemies he had not yet gathered sufficient data on, illogical enemies, or situations of utter irrationality, Imotekh often found himself unable to respond.

One major reason Imotekh favored this mechanical body was that, thanks to the living metal's self-repair capability, he could engage enemies indefinitely, continuously gathering data to ultimately defeat them.

But this enemy—

A cascade of data flashed before Imotekh's eyes, ultimately confirming the towering purple-gold figure as the human gene-seed Primarch Fulgrim,

Yet according to human records, this Primarch had long since betrayed to the Void Gods of the Immaterium—why had he reappeared among human forces?

Imotekh replayed the footage repeatedly, observing "Fulgrim's" every motion, comparing it with his prior recordings of Guilliman, Sanguinius, and the mysterious hooded Primarch, and eventually detected subtle discrepancies,

"Some form of cloning technology? In biological science, humans do possess certain expertise."

This was a fact Imotekh had to acknowledge; out of necessity to understand his enemy, he had studied the biological technology of the Human Empire. How to put it? The more he examined it, the more it resembled alchemy, feudal superstition—achieving effects utterly contrary to reason.

This still fell within Imotekh's logical comprehension,

What truly left him baffled was that inexplicable teleportation technology,

Imotekh had limited understanding of spacetime and warp technologies; he could only confirm it was not warp-based, nor akin to the Necron pocket-dimension teleportation—its principles were utterly opaque to him, completely beyond his grasp,

Even after transmitting the footage to his tomb-techs, they offered no meaningful insights.

Imotekh felt a strange sensation,

As if he were a primitive man who had just learned to chip stone tools, trying to comprehend the function of a microchip.

Could humans truly possess technology at this level?

A wariness stirred in Imotekh's core,

In his logical assessment, human threat level had risen one tier.

Imotekh turned his gaze to the edict recently issued by the Silent King in the name of the Triad Council,

The Silent King, in the name of the Triad Council, commanded Imotekh to subdue Anrakyr,

His pale green eyes flickered several times,

He had not publicly opposed the Triad Council, nor did he intend to,

He aimed only to oppose the Silent King and his chosen Second, not the Triad Council system itself, and strictly adhered to Necron war etiquette,

This was not due to Imotekh's honesty, but because he knew his strength was insufficient to defeat the Silent King in an unrestricted war,

He could only confine the Silent King within the framework of war etiquette, turning their conflict into a nobleman's game—where Storm King stood a chance of victory,

More importantly, this granted Storm King political advantage, helping him win over other Phaerons,

Every military action Storm King undertook was fundamentally aimed at supporting his political objectives.

"Twenty-two Phaerons openly support Anrakyr?"

Storm King was slightly startled—he had not expected Anrakyr to rally over twenty Phaerons so quickly, outnumbering those who supported Storm King,

This was a formidable force within the Necrons, and these Phaerons had all once sworn allegiance to the Silent King or his allies,

How had Anrakyr achieved this? Could it really be that the Silent King had driven them all into Anrakyr's arms?

Even the Nihilakh Dynasty, which had always remained neutral and served only wealth, had defected to Anrakyr,

Even with Tarasyn on his side, Anrakyr's wealth could not possibly surpass the Silent King's, could it?

Could it be that the Silent King had withheld the Nihilakh Dynasty's final payment?

Imotekh swiftly recognized the danger,

Anrakyr was unlike the Silent King,

The Silent King's political standing was riddled with flaws—whether the sin of biological conversion or his post-return forced elevation of his vassal dynasties' Phaerons to the Triad Council, these acts were politically fatal; even the most loyal Phaerons could not refute Imotekh's accusations against him,

But Anrakyr was different—this traveler was politically flawless; he abandoned his world, renounced his status as a hegemon, and wandered among the stars, dedicating eons to safeguarding Necron dynasties' wealth and dignity, and many dynasties owed him favors,