Chapter 257

Trazyn the Infinite, curator of the Solemnace Galleries, was observing his brand-new collection.

In this tomb world beneath the planet, the protector of all history and artifacts, the recorder of all extinct and unextinct civilizations, the great Trazyn the Infinite, was looking at his brand-new collection.

His Prismatic Gallery contained all the historical scenes he deemed worthy of display.

From the War in Heaven to the death of Solar Macharius, from the fall of the Phoenix Fulgrim to the War of the Beast, from the unremembered Empire to the fate of Talassia Yuton, countless historical scenes were preserved or restored by Trazyn.

He walked past the clone of Fulgrim and stopped at the end of the exhibition hall.

The Castellan of Krieg, General Droster, and their Cadian 8th Regiment and 184th Regiment were all restrained by stasis fields, permanently remaining at the moment before they met their final end.

In front of them was an exquisite plaque, written in the languages of all the important races Trazyn knew: The Fall of Cadia.

This was an important moment, undoubtedly changing the direction of the entire galaxy.

Trazyn's glowing eyes stared at this scene.

He had sacrificed many precious collections for this scene.

A Custodian, Inquisitor Greyfax, two Astra Militarum regiments, and a squad of Ultramarines from the Great Heresy era...

He had, of course, left Mind-Shackle Scarabs in the bodies of these collections.

But Belisarius Cawl, that interesting human, Trazyn believed he had a way to unlock the restrictions of the Mind-Shackle Scarabs; this would only be a matter of time—

The Mind-Shackle Scarabs were removed.

The eyes on Trazyn's metal face flickered a few times. Just now, the Mind-Shackle Scarabs were removed.

No, not just removed... Through dimensional phase communication technology, Trazyn was able to cross the limitations of time and space to connect to the Mind-Shackle Scarabs that had been removed from Greyfax's body.

"The Omnissiah has given me power and a machine spirit..."

A simple, immature consciousness came from the other side of the dimensional phase communication.

The Mind-Shackle Scarabs refused Trazyn's access.

To be precise, it was the consciousness of the Mind-Shackle Scarabs that refused.

This made Trazyn feel confused.

Although this consciousness was simple, it was by no means something that could be born from the simple structure of the Mind-Shackle Scarabs.

Some kind of implanted intelligent system? An external thinking array? Or a trick from the Gods of the Void?

As for the so-called Omnissiah, Trazyn only regarded this as another superstitious behavior of the Adeptus Mechanicus.

The vast majority of Necrons believed that the Adeptus Mechanicus was a mixture of low-end technology and rotting flesh, simultaneously profaning both machine and flesh.

But Trazyn thought they were interesting; although superstitious, they were also history worth recording. His gallery already housed several priests of the Adeptus Mechanicus.

As for machine spirits...

The soul of the machine?

Trazyn dismissed this with disdain.

He turned and left the Fall of Cadia display, walking step by step out of this exhibition hall that belonged to humans.

From the fall of Cadia to the Great Heresy, from the Great Crusade to the Age of Strife, from the Iron Men Rebellion to the Golden Age, from the invention of the first Warp engine to humanity's first step out of the solar system...

The entire history of human civilization flashed before Trazyn's eyes. He was able to witness the evolution of human history.

From ignorance to wisdom, from wisdom to madness, from madness to being blinded by a leaf, and then from being blinded by a leaf back to ignorance.

"The soul of the machine?" Trazyn muttered as he walked.

Finally, Trazyn's steps stopped in front of two extremely simple and primitive probes.

This was also part of his collection. The plaque in front of the two probes read: Humanity's Attempt to Contact Other Civilizations—Voyager 1 and 2.

This was the end of the second millennium of humanity, two simple probes released into the universe. They tried to use these two probes to understand the star system they were in and to contact other civilizations.

Trazyn stood in front of this display and couldn't help but let out a low, dry laugh.

"The soul of the machine?" He muttered again, as if telling a joke worth repeating many times: "How can a machine have a soul?"

Trazyn closed the stasis field of the display, walked up step by step, opened the probe, and took out what he was looking for.

It was a circular twelve-inch record plated with gold on the surface.

Ancient humans used an extremely primitive way to record sound, carving traces of vibration on this disc, and then restoring the carvings into vibrations through a stylus to play the sound.

Trazyn also found the matching diamond stylus from Voyager 1, and found a record player from his collection.

He swept the dust off the record with a sense of ritual, placed it on the record player, adjusted the speed to 33, and placed the diamond stylus on the edge of the golden record—

"Hello."

"This is a gift from a distant little world."

"It records our voices, our science, our music, our thoughts, emotions, and souls."

"This sound of Earth is to give our hope, our determination, and our good wishes for distant worlds to this vast and awe-inspiring universe."

"We are trying hard to live in our era, hoping to enter your era."

After a brief idle rotation, a sound mixed with a little noise was played.

That was Akkadian, one of the oldest languages known to humans at the time, born from the Semites of ancient Mesopotamia.

Then came the proto-language of High Gothic, the four dialects of the ancient Dragon Kingdom, a total of fifty-five languages repeating this greeting.

Trazyn waited quietly, waiting for his favorite part.

Waiting helps generate emotions, he thought calmly.

Then, the part he was looking forward to came.

The music of ancient Terran humans was also recorded in it.

The sound of strings being plucked rang out, first like high mountains and then like flowing water. The vibration of the stylus was depicting the ups and downs of emotions.

Trazyn had researched the history of this piece and knew that this piece told of the friendship between one person and another.

Their souls were connected; in the ancient human saying, they were "soulmates."

Humans chose this piece as one of the tracks on the record, trying to seek soulmates in the vast universe.

However, the one who ultimately got this record was Trazyn, a Necron without a soul.

"How can a machine have a soul?"

Trazyn muttered to himself, savoring the fluctuations in his circuits that could barely be called emotions.

If a machine could have a soul, why was there only emptiness in the Necron's mechanical bodies after such a long time?

Trazyn stood calmly in place, listening to the twenty-seven minutes of music playing quietly...

"Curator, a guest is visiting."

Sannet, Trazyn's chief technician, sent him this message.

Trazyn felt a little dissatisfied that his time enjoying music was destroyed.

But he still turned off the record player gently.

The Solemnace Galleries welcome visitors.

"The Quasi-Overlord, Traveler Anrakyr, sends his greetings and hopes to visit you."

Chief Technician Sannet's voice sounded again.

Trazyn was stunned for a moment.

He didn't have much interaction with that Traveler Anrakyr, who was committed to reviving the power of the Necron Empire.

Why would he come to visit him?

But before Trazyn could respond, a faint blue light appeared in the Solemnace Galleries.

Those machines that originally belonged to Trazyn were overwhelmed by another will, and the door to his museum opened accordingly.

Traveler Anrakyr, glowing with a faint blue light, stepped into the human exhibition hall of the Prismatic Gallery and stood opposite Trazyn.

Trazyn knew that Anrakyr was good at using his complex will to control machines, even other people's machines.

But he didn't expect that he could even control the machines in his museum... His ability seemed to be stronger than Trazyn knew.

Traveler Anrakyr gestured a series of complex ancient rituals to Trazyn, and then spoke to Trazyn in the cumbersome language used by the ancient Sautekh nobles:

"Greetings to you, Trazyn, the Infinite and Thief."

Trazyn smiled with disdain at this. He knew that his compatriots didn't understand his career, which made his reputation among the Necron dynasties a bit stinky.

"Are you interested in the history of the galaxy?" Trazyn questioned.

"... You are good at stealing and excavating, whether it's Necron or other civilizations'."

Anrakyr deliberated and said:

"How many ancient ruins have been pried open by you, how many precious treasures have been taken away by you, how much valuable knowledge has been hidden by you."

"I also heard that you have a lot of contact with those low-end religions of humans that are full of superstition, flesh, and machines."

"So, Trazyn, tell me, have these behaviors of yours accumulated enough wisdom to solve a mystery?"

Trazyn listened to the cumbersome and annoying language in Anrakyr's mouth and couldn't help but wave his hand, dismissing it with disdain: "What exactly do you want?"

Trazyn used the vulgar language that Necron slaves would use, which made Anrakyr's living metal body stiffen slightly.

Anrakyr looked at Trazyn, seemingly deliberating on his language.

It wasn't until a few minutes later that Anrakyr spoke. He didn't use the Necron's own language, but instead used human language.

As if only in this way could he express his meaning...

"I think I've grown a machine spirit," Anrakyr said.

"... Huh?" Trazyn was stunned for a moment.

Then Trazyn quickly opened the recording equipment in the exhibition hall and looked at Anrakyr again.

This time, Trazyn's expression became extremely serious.

"Can you say that sentence again?"

"This is the most humorous sentence spoken by the Necron race since we experienced biological conversion."

"This sentence is worth recording as history and listed on the first page of 'A History of Necron Jokes'."

(End of chapter)