Chapter 598

The Silent King's flagship, the *Song of Annihilation*,

This ship, as vast as a giant city, was sailing slowly through the cold void.

Orikan the Diviner finished his day of stargazing, left the observatory specifically arranged for him by the Silent King, and walked through the cold corridors of the massive vessel.

He reached out a hand to rub the area near his human-like temples.

This was, of course, not because he was tired or had a headache; it was merely a habit left over from when he was still a living being.

The Necrontyr were a short-lived race.

Their planet's star was inhabited by the C'tan known as the Nightbringer; that terrifying Star God caused their star to undergo a transformation, releasing highly toxic sunlight.

Under that sunlight, the bodies of the Necrontyr often developed all sorts of diseases, and their lifespans were extremely short. Even later, when they stepped out into the stars and mastered countless technologies that now seemed like miracles, they could not erase the curse that the Star God had inscribed upon their existence.

Among the already short-lived Necrontyr, Orikan appeared even more short-lived; from the moment he was born, there was a massive tumor in his brain.

This tumor stimulated Orikan's brain development to a certain extent, giving him extraordinary thinking abilities, but it also threatened Orikan's life at every moment.

According to the judgment of the Necrontyr physicians at the time, Orikan's lifespan was only about half that of a normal Necrontyr—the shortest of the short-lived.

Back when he was still a Necrontyr, Orikan was obsessed with stargazing; his mind granted him a certain ability.

He could decipher the trajectory of reality and the future from the way the stars moved, see the ripples of the fundamental laws in the material universe, and find the direction of the world's development.

For this very reason, he became the Silent King's Royal Astromancer.

Every time he finished stargazing, Orikan would be extremely exhausted; the tumor pressed against his nerves, causing him unbearable headaches that he could not escape.

At these times, he would reach out his fingers to rub his head, using this method to provide a meager bit of relief from the pain. Then, he would sneak into the Great Necrontyr Archives.

Necrontyr culture was highly influenced by death; because of this, they had an inexplicable obsession with death, the past, and leaving traces in the world.

The Necrontyr archives were a museum, a library, and also the graveyard of their race; all records of the living and the dead were stored within.

That place was like the past of the Necrontyr, perfectly corresponding to the future symbolized by Orikan's observatory.

Orikan would sneak inside to look through past records and tease Trazyn, who was still very dull, serious, and taciturn back then.

Unexpectedly, sixty million years later, he had become the more serious one, while Trazyn had become just like he used to be.

That idiot whose brain had been muddled by history.

Thinking of Trazyn, Orikan could not help but shake his head.

He had dragged Orikan toward the furnace of biotransference, grabbing Orikan's hand to tell him that as long as he stepped into the furnace, Orikan could be reborn, attain eternity, and not have to worry about the tumor in his brain taking away the most important mind in the galaxy.

Then, Orikan and Trazyn stepped into the flames of the furnace together and died together.

Sometimes Orikan would ponder if this was the reason why the two of them experienced some memory confusion after biotransference.

Orikan became somewhat like Trazyn; in his memory, it was Trazyn who dragged him into the biotransference furnace.

Trazyn became somewhat like Orikan; in his memory, it was Orikan who dragged him into the biotransference furnace.

Or perhaps, it could also be that Orikan became Trazyn, and Trazyn became Orikan.

Who knows?

Even that history and time itself had been disturbed and corrected, corrected and disturbed, several times in the endless wars.

Orikan did not care about that; it was just one fool dying for another fool.

Orikan walked toward the direction of the Silent King while recalling the past; this was one of the ways he now relieved the pressure of his logical brain's operation.

Suddenly, Orikan saw two figures by the corridor, one tall and one short, one thin and one sturdy, one master and one servant.

The old General Trazyn and his bodyguard Obyron.

These two were acquaintances of Orikan; not long ago, Orikan was still serving the Stormlord, while Trazyn was a Crowned General under the Stormlord.

Unexpectedly, both of them had defected to the Silent King and become his subordinates.

Of course, Orikan was acting on the will of *that person*; he was a spy, a mole.

Trazyn, that old madman... probably still thought he was a Necrontyr, blindly loyal to the Silent King.

Orikan remembered that Trazyn had become a Crowned General back then precisely by suppressing Necrontyr separatists.

"Master Orikan! It has been many years!" Trazyn saluted Orikan with his booming voice.

Orikan stopped his steps, looking at Trazyn with slight vigilance.

Even though this old man was crazy, it did not mean he was not dangerous.

Just a short while ago, he had used iron-fisted means to forcibly suppress several Overlords who attempted to resist the Silent King and eliminated a group of Orks disturbing the edge of the Pariah Nexus; now, he was returning in triumph.

Among the many generals under the Silent King, in terms of command level, the most dangerous was this Trazyn.

And in terms of individual martial prowess, Trazyn and his bodyguard Obyron... if they did not turn into "light," Orikan and Trazyn combined would find it difficult to fend them off.

A commander and warrior who was crazy, intelligent, and powerful, and who was highly likely to maintain considerable loyalty to the Silent King... If the Silent King discovered Orikan's true purpose, Trazyn would become one of the most difficult enemies to deal with.

"I still remember our experience working together under the Stormlord!" Trazyn said with a smile: "I didn't expect that after coming under the Silent King, I would still be able to work with reliable you."