Chapter 625

Cegorach is the Laughing God, the God of Mockery, the God of Satire, and the Clown God.

In the entire Aeldari pantheon, His position is extremely inconspicuous. He lacks the boundless divine power of the God-King Asuryan, the terrifying combat prowess of Khaine the Bloody-Handed, the beauty of the Maiden Goddess Lileath, and the ability of the Crone Goddess to predict fate. He is not like Vaul, who could forge peerless divine artifacts; He is not like Hoec, who could roam the stars; He does not even possess the compassion of Isha.

The clown's only skill is to amuse—to amuse himself and to amuse others. He is merely a jester in the court of the gods, and no matter how He flips and turns with that clever tongue, He cannot change the fact that He is incomparably weak.

Especially when the Silent King stepped out of his flagship, set foot on the Dais of Dominion, and thrust that metal spear at Cegorach.

Cegorach realized His own weakness so clearly.

He saw the spear wrapped in the Burning One's undying flame, the spear capable of slaying C'tan.

In the past, the Silent King had used this very spear to single-handedly shatter the Burning One.

The metal casing of that spear unfolded, or rather, that layer of metal casing that looked like a spear was merely a limiter for the true weapon.

After the metal casing unfolded, what was revealed was a slender crystalline filament. This filament was unimaginably thin—so thin that it seemed to have no width, no height; thinner than an atom, thinner than a quark, thinner than the Planck length, thinner than any matter Cegorach had ever known.

So much so that this spear pierced into the cracks of reality itself, piercing into the veil where the Warp and reality intersect.

Relying on that crystalline filament, which acted like a probe, the Silent King was able to glimpse the hidden gears of the mechanism of creation racing past him, Cegorach, and all things. He saw the form of the Pivot of All Things, saw the secret knowledge of the universe slowly flowing, forging, and projecting.

He saw those things that determined the form of the universe, those infinite wonders, the roots of infinite dimensions. The material universe was, in the final analysis, merely a projection of what he saw upon different dimensions—a layer on its infinite crystalline surface.

He saw the first cause of all things, the prime mover, the ultimate initial cause setting of the causal chain, the fundamental source of all existence, the end point of infinite regression—those words, those settings.

Massive energy was being consumed continuously. The Silent King tampered with things he saw but could not understand, gently leaving two slashes between the thing representing Cegorach, symbolizing that Cegorach's existence had been severed from the root.

Just this alone consumed most of the spear's power, rendering it temporarily unable to operate at such high power, at least unable to display such might for fifteen minutes.

Cegorach sensed that He was becoming incoherent. It was an indescribable feeling, as if He were being divided by something invisible. This division was not physical, not of the Warp, but a more thorough, more intense division.

If it were Asuryan or Khaine, they might be severely wounded by such an indescribable blow, and Cegorach... Cegorach had no way to resist at all; He could only fall apart. This was within Cegorach's expectations.

He struggled to keep Himself held together, casting His gaze toward the Aeldari pantheon.

Except for Cegorach, most of the thrones in the pantheon were empty, all covered in dust and shattered.

Only Khaine's throne, though broken, had not yet been extinguished.

Only Isha's throne, though empty, remained intact.

Only the throne that once belonged to Ynnead and now belonged to Zhou Yun, though incomplete, had someone sitting upon it.

But Cegorach did not intend to seek their help, did not intend to rely on their power; He had a better option.

Cegorach's gaze turned toward the highest point of the pantheon.

There, there was still a fifth divine presence among the Aeldari besides Cegorach, Isha, Khaine, and Zhou Yun.

That was the most rebellious young daughter among the Aeldari gods.

"Little sister! Save your brother!" Cegorach let out a shout into the boundless Empyrean.

Draped in thin veils, where lust and purity coexisted, where divinity and demonic nature were one, a soft, supple body like a mermaid and a viper writhed slightly. A face possessing both the features of a handsome man and a beautiful woman looked down from on high at the reality dimension.

In an instant, in Slaanesh's garden, millions of flowers bearing the faces of beautiful women opened. Sweet floral scents were exhaled from the mouths of these souls who had been bound for ten thousand years. 660,000 ceaseless dancers leaped around Her, 660,000 singers who had been stripped of their lower bodies sang of Her beauty, 660,000 harpists who had fashioned harps from their own intestines played opening songs for Her, 660,000 keyboardists played while swearing to perform for Her for a lifetime, and 660,000 bassists brought wine and delicacies...

"Clown, be grateful to your master god."

The Aeldari goddess revealed a sweet smile. The Lady of Thirst opened Her deep, mucus-covered mouth, and orange-yellow light burst forth from within. A ball of fire surged from Her mouth, transforming into a roaring phoenix that flew into Cegorach's body.

That was the Asuryan divine power that had once been swallowed by Slaanesh; She applied it to Cegorach.

In the material universe, every part of Cegorach became shattered in the blink of an eye. He was like a piece of minced meat that had been finely sliced and divided, each piece the same size, each piece equally tiny.

He turned into dust, the smallest and thinnest dust, slowly dissipating in the vacuum.

The Silent King was not surprised by this situation. Cegorach was merely the Clown God; His existence and His power were too weak. Back then, the Burning One had managed to take five shots; if it were the Aeldari's Asuryan or Khaine the Bloody-Handed, they might have been able to take a few shots as well.

But Cegorach could not. Although His mouth was extremely dangerous, He Himself could not withstand even a single shot.

The Silent King could also guess that Cegorach was merely a discarded pawn, a tool used to force the spear in his hand into cooldown and create an opportunity.

But the Silent King had to admit that Cegorach was a highly tempting bait.

The Silent King still remembered what massive wounds Cegorach had inflicted upon the C'tan during the War in Heaven. A major reason the Necrons were able to defeat the C'tan was that Cegorach's lies had caused the C'tan to consume each other significantly.