Chapter 582

In the Nephilim Sector, the Calidra Battle Group was piercing into the midst of these silent stars.

The Calidra Battle Group was the vanguard of the Indomitus Crusade's First Fleet, with armaments almost comparable to the sum of several battle groups.

They marched between the scarred sectors of the Imperial holy territory, liberating one world after another and engaging in cruel, bloody battles with countless enemies.

But the true target of their troops had always been the Nephilim Sector.

After the Great Rift opened, the entire Warp was filled with astropathic distress signals; the Nephilim System was like this at the beginning as well.

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

In the Nephilim Sector, there were no painful wails, no panicked pleas for help, no whispers of those malicious Warp filth; there was only a deathly silence.

This situation caught the attention of the Imperial Regent, Lord Guilliman; he dispatched Admiral Malen to lead the Calidra Battle Group into the Nephilim Sector to investigate the specific situation within.

But Malen's troops encountered a series of strange situations just after entering the Nephilim Sector.

First, the psykers on board the ships began to have problems.

These psykers would become sluggish and fearful from time to time, and would have epileptic seizures from time to time, like fish out of water.

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

The Astartes Librarians were in relatively better condition; according to them, they could no longer perceive the existence of the Warp.

Some of them claimed that the Warp was like it had dried up, turning into a pool of stagnant water, while others claimed that the waves of the Warp were still raging, but there seemed to be some kind of dome in this sector blocking the floods of the Empyrean.

Even those Astartes Librarians most skilled in prophecy could only see their future falling into a cold silence.

Subsequently, there were problems with the ships' Geller fields and Warp travel.

When some ships were traveling in the Warp, their Geller fields suddenly disintegrated without any warning.

But even more bizarrely, those ships that lost the protection of their Geller fields did not encounter any demonic invasions.

Some people thought this was a miracle, a blessing from the Hua Hua Hua Di Huang and Saint Doraemon, and there were even people in the Ecclesiarchy who claimed so.

But members of the Saint Doraemon Church and the Battle Sisters told Admiral Malen privately that this was by no means a miracle, but a complete anomaly.

The Warp engines themselves also had problems after this; Warp travel became increasingly difficult and arduous.

Members of the Adeptus Mechanicus claimed that they were like sliding on a lake that was drying up, and the operating efficiency of the Warp engines was becoming slower and slower; even with the standing statues of Saint Doraemon, this trend could not be curbed.

Many superstitious captains, panicked psykers, and uneasy Astra Militarum soldiers advised Malen not to go any deeper.

But Malen was unwilling to return empty-handed; he at least hoped to learn some more specific information.

And the Tech-Priests were in favor of this move with twenty-two mechanical hands; they were also full of curiosity about the situation before them.

Eventually, it was a Tech-Priest who made a discovery; he detected strange energy reactions on a planet not far from the battle group and determined that it held the key to the anomaly in the Nephilim Sector.

A joint force composed of Astra Militarum, Ultramarines, Battle Sisters, and Black Templars landed on this planet.

In the Imperial star charts, this planet was marked as an Agri-World with a population of billions.

But after the Imperial troops landed on the planet, they sensed that something was wrong.

It was too quiet, too empty.

On the leveled plains, unharvested crops swayed in the wind, but there was no one to harvest them; the buildings in the settlements were also empty, moldy and cold food sat on the residents' dining tables, the machinery inside the agricultural processing plants was still rumbling, the fertilizer union was still constantly releasing toxic fertilizer into the atmosphere, and some unstopped agricultural machines were still operating, driving toward the horizon on the absolutely flat land.

There was not a single person on the entire planet, as if everyone had stopped what they were doing at the same moment and disappeared at the same moment.

Soon, strange conditions also began to appear among the Imperial troops; many Astra Militarum soldiers began to become abnormally exhausted, becoming weak and unable to move, and eventually stopped moving and talking, completely stagnating in place.

The situation with the psykers was even more severe; they wailed that they were suffocating, then fell into madness, and finally committed suicide directly.

Even the Ultramarines were affected to a certain extent, becoming exhausted.

And about half of the Tech-Priests in the Adeptus Mechanicus did not escape the influence, also beginning to show fatigue and weakness; this portion of Tech-Priests were those who believed in the Omnissiah more than the Prime Power, and believed in the God of All Machines more than Saint Doraemon.

Only the members of the Adeptus Mechanicus who devoutly believed in Saint Doraemon, the Battle Sisters, and the Black Templars were unaffected,

as if their devout faith in the Hua Hua Hua Di Huang and Saint Doraemon had protected them.

Soon they discovered the source of all these problems; on that Agri-World stood a spire cast from blackstone.

Upon seeing the substance known as blackstone, the Tech-Priests quickly made a judgment, determining that it was this Necron creation that had isolated the Warp and affected their plans.

And what happened next proved their guess; the Necrons suddenly emerged from a pocket dimension and launched a shameful sneak attack on the Imperial troops.

Their goal was strange; those ordinary Astra Militarum soldiers did not seem to attract their attention, and their goal did not seem to be to kill the Imperial troops either.

They concentrated their firepower to surround the Battle Sisters, Tech-Priests, and Black Templars who were unaffected by the blackstone, seemingly wanting to capture them.

Fortunately, the attack by this group of Necrons was not well-prepared, and at a critical moment, a Black Templar warrior suddenly claimed that he had received enlightenment from the Hua Hua Hua Di Huang and became an Hua Hua Hua Di Huang's Champion.

That Champion held a black sword, his black armor shrouded in light like a scorching sun, and at the cost of self-sacrifice, he repelled the Necron troops, covering the main force as they completed their retreat.

On Admiral Malen's flagship, the *Heavy Fist*, Malen was holding his war council.

"My warriors are still full of faith; the Hua Hua Hua Di Huang's will is undoubtedly protecting us, and the Hua Hua Hua Di Huang's wrath is waiting for us to vent it!"

"I will never forgive these shameful xenos, and I will never retreat; I swear in the name of the Hua Hua Hua Di Huang and Sigismund!"

Marshal Kurtz of the Black Templars said in a tone that would never compromise.

"The real problem is that it is becoming increasingly difficult for us to conduct Warp travel; only one in ten Warp travels can succeed. If this continues, we will only be able to rely on sub-light engines." The speaker was Custodian Shield-Captain Zelantius.

Since the lifting of the restriction order, the Custodians had joined various battle groups and committed themselves to the fighting across the galaxy.

They were less affected by the anti-Warp field released by the blackstone, but unlike the Battle Sisters and the Black Templars, they did not seem to be protected by faith, but rather seemed to be naturally adapted to the thin Warp environment.

"This is a trap." General Oberon of the Astra Militarum said, tapping the table: "Admiral Malen, the further we go, the more we sink into the quagmire, and eventually we won't even have a chance to retreat."

The Astra Militarum under Oberon's command were the most severely damaged, and his own face was full of fatigue and pain; naturally, he had developed thoughts of retreating.

Black Templar Marshal Kurtz insisted on never withdrawing from the Nephilim Sector, the Custodian Shield-Captain was full of hesitation, and the Astra Militarum insisted on an immediate retreat.

They all understood that Warp travel was becoming increasingly severe; if they retreated, it would be very difficult to get back in, and conversely, if they didn't retreat, it would be very difficult to leave.

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

He still had a trump card in his hand.

"Before heading to the Nephilim Sector, His Highness the Regent gave us something."

"That is a creation of Archmagos Belisarius Cawl, said to be the study of Saint Doraemon God——————"

"Saint Doraemon is not a god." Battle Sister Mentor Ye Shuni said to Admiral Malen with a smile.

Admiral Malen was a devout believer in the Ecclesiarchy, but he did not reject the Saint Doraemon faith, and even leaned somewhat toward the Ecclesiarchy's Doraemon God sect from more than a decade ago.

That sect claimed that the Hua Hua Hua Di Huang and Saint Doraemon were both true gods————and then they were declared heretics by the Battle Sisters.

That Saint Maiden Jeanne personally led a team to refute them, but the Battle Sisters were never good at words, so they chose to use powerful Exterminatus as their argument; the scorching golden fire burned on the home planet of the Doraemon God sect for twenty-two days, and in the end, not even slag was left.

A drop of sweat flowed down Admiral Malen's forehead; he was also affected by the surrounding anti-Warp field and his mind was a bit unclear, so he accidentally said the wrong thing.

"It is said to be a product of studying the wisdom of Saint Doraemon, which has just been tested and has not yet been officially put into use." Admiral Malen corrected himself in time.

If he didn't correct himself, he was afraid that the Battle Sister would use a bolter to refute him.

"You mean, that product can solve the predicament before us?" Custodian Shield-Captain Zelantius said in a somewhat subtle tone.

As a Custodian, he had farmed under the Imperial Palace, so naturally he would not underestimate the power of Saint Doraemon, but he was very skeptical about whether humans could really understand the wisdom of Saint Doraemon's creations.

Even the extraordinary wisdom of the Custodians was completely in the dark when studying Saint Doraemon's gadgets, completely failing to understand the principles within.

"I even suspect that the invention of Archmagos Belisarius Cawl was prepared for this very moment."

"His Highness the Great Regent must have anticipated the situation in the Nephilim Sector long ago."

Malen's tone carried devotion and fervor.

". I am more inclined to believe it is the will of Saint Doraemon." Battle Sister Mentor Ye Shuni blinked and said.

Malen also nodded in agreement; recently there had been some rumors in the battle group that Saint Doraemon had awakened.

Malen looked at the representative of the Tech-Priests, asking with his eyes if they had completed the preparations.

That creation of the Archmagos was quite complex, and the Tech-Priests in the battle group couldn't understand the principles at all; they could only follow the operating manual written by Archmagos Cawl step by step, so it took quite a bit of time to complete the preparations.

The Tech-Priest nodded to indicate that everything was done, and they only needed Malen to give the order and start the equipment.

"Everyone, come and witness a great creation." Malen said to the people at the war council with a smile.

The faces of the crowd also carried some curiosity, and they followed Malen to the very front of the bridge.

The massive porthole surrounded the bridge at at least two hundred degrees, the stars flickering faintly in the void, and between the stars, eight ships with slightly peculiar shapes were floating before Malen's flagship.

Those eight ships were floating in the void in a rectangular form, each with a different shape; the four ships at the corners were like four right angles, and the four ships at the top, bottom, left, and right were like four long strips.

The eight ships floated in the void, like a broken door frame.

And in the center of the bridge, under the huge porthole, there was a door panel that was pinkish-red; the door frame had been removed, and no one knew where it had gone, while a large number of cables extended from around the door panel, plugged into a series of massive machines nearby.

"How was the Anywhere Door dismantled like this?! Isn't this really blasphemy?" General Oberon of the Astra Militarum said with some fear.

He recognized what that pinkish-red wooden door was; it was the Anywhere Door, one of Saint Doraemon's most iconic gadgets.

"This was done by Archmagos Belisarius Dora Cawl, so it's not blasphemy." Battle Sister Ye Shuni emphasized the word 'Dora' and said.