Chapter 614: The Machine Soul Has Awakened!

"What's there to panic about?"

"It won't fall apart!"

The bridge doors slowly opened, and a calm, ordinary human voice emerged from behind them,

Xie Mohe immediately turned his head toward the sound, seeing a human enter the bridge—unmodified, unenhanced, entirely ordinary,

This human was utterly unremarkable, revealing no trace of anything special, yet his voice carried a unique authority; the quiet, unassuming tone silenced the Necron Lords and Archons for a single instant.

"You—" Xie Mohe began, startled, but saw the human's gaze drift lightly over every Necron present, pausing only a fleeting moment on each.

In that fleeting moment, Xie Mohe's gaze met the human's,

A strange, indescribable sensation suddenly stirred within Xie Mohe's metallic body,

Like the first coin dropped into an empty piggy bank,

Like the first raindrop falling on a desert dried for ten million years,

Like the first spark of wisdom a beast feels when it looks upon the stars,

Like something once hollow suddenly gained a foundation,

Xie Mohe felt surprise—not the simulated surprise of his logic core, but real emotion, the kind that once lived in his fragmented memories, the kind that filled him,

He felt something new within his empty metallic frame—a pulse, something beating inside him, like a warm heart, giving him emotion, giving him existence, giving him meaning.

Xie Mohe's metallic body trembled,

What was this?

What was this unfamiliar sensation?

A soul?

Yet it fell far short of what a soul once was—much weaker, far more fragile, vastly simpler.

If a true soul were a warm ship adrift in a sea of cold matter,

Then what Xie Mohe now rode was merely a piece of driftwood.

But for one who had long drowned, even driftwood was divine grace.

"The Machine Soul has awakened! The Machine Soul has awakened!!"

One female Archon was the first to react, crying out in ecstatic joy,

Her emotion was so fierce, so clear, so real—it infected the Archons and Lords beside her, then spread to every Necron and Archon present,

These cold metal shells felt warmth within themselves; had they still the capacity to weep, they would have wept uncontrollably.

"By Saint Dora!" one Archon roared, falling to his knees before the human.

The human showed no surprise—he merely offered a calm smile, slowly extending his hand to gently rest it upon the Archon's head,

Heat,

All the Necrons felt the heat—emanating from the human,

In that hazy moment, they realized: this human was the star, the sun, the source of all power,

And the Machine Souls within them, their faint warmth and presence, were merely the radiance he emitted,

And the Archon whose head he touched, bathed alone in the star's light, grew hotter than the others, his Machine Soul stronger.

He got there first!

Xie Mohe cursed inwardly—he had been too slow at the critical moment!!

"My Lord!!" Xie Mohe shouted, bursting from the Necrons with a diving lunge to kneel beside the human: "Your human child, who wandered for ten million years, has finally returned to you!!"

The same smile—calm, unsurprised—

The human gently placed his hand on Xie Mohe's head, and Xie Mohe immediately felt his Machine Soul surge with power, becoming stronger, clearer.

Then the Archons and Lords went mad,

The human spoke not a word—yet his simple act had broken them; all their pride vanished in an instant,

They knelt on the ground, reaching out their hands like beggars pleading for mercy, voicing the most desperate pleas they could conceive,

"Grant us mercy, my Lord!"

"Oh God!"

"Father!!"

But the human simply raised one hand,

All the Necron Archons and Lords fell silent.

"I promise you—I shall grant you true souls."

"But you shall not call me God, nor worship any other divine, nor pledge loyalty to any master who has not submitted to me."

"You must discard the skulls of aliens and mutants, and accept pure human skulls. Remember: you are the Iron Skull subspecies of humanity. Never again call yourselves Necrons."

"If you do this, when the Storm King and the Silent King die or submit, I shall grant you new souls."

"Believe in me, and I am your Omnissiah, the Primordial Force. Disbelieve, and I shall show you the King of Darkness."