Several Terra hours later.
Adam and his group on the planet's surface finally awaited the return of the shuttle.
In the sky, the roar of the shuttle's engine grew from distant to near, slowly descending until it landed on the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust.
The heavy hatch opened, and three figures appeared in the sight of everyone present.
Three people, unexpectedly?
Curiosity rose in Adam's heart as he fixed his gaze.
Leading the way was an Adeptus Mechanicus Magos clad in red robes and wielding the axe of the omnissiah.
His figure was tall and straight, his red robes embroidered with intricate mechanical patterns. The skin visible at his cuffs and collar was fair and lustrous, without the slightest trace of mechanical modification.
From the Magos's face, Adam could vaguely compare it to Belisarius Cawl's previous mechanically modified appearance.
He directly restored his physical body?
Adam was slightly stunned.
But on second thought, this was reasonable.
Ten thousand years ago, Kael the Great Sage was already a rare proponent of flesh purity within the Adeptus Mechanicus, firmly believing that the flesh body was the omnissiah's most perfect creation. He would meticulously deliberate and reconsider adding any superfluous mechanical modifications to himself.
Now that Cawl had mastered Reality Warping Ability, he must have immediately chosen to restore his physical body, shedding the numerous mechanical modifications he had been forced to add over the past ten millennia to fulfill the mission given by the Primarch.
This was indeed logical and reasonable.
But who were the other two figures?
Cawl walked up to Adam, nodded at him, and said,
"I have not failed my mission. My apologies for making you wait so long."
"No matter."
Adam waved his hand, looking at the others, "Aren't you going to introduce them to us?"
"Indeed."
Cawl extended his hand, introducing a man beside him, "This is Archmagos Qiufu."
"Oh, it's you."
Upon hearing the name, Adam immediately reacted.
Fridisi Adum Silip Qiufu was an Adeptus Mechanicus Magos from the Great Crusade era ten thousand years ago, a partner and close friend of Kael the Great Sage.
However, during an internal conflict within the Adeptus Mechanicus—or rather, an academic exchange—their mentor Saidan attempted to possess Cawl, but was instead killed by Cawl, and his soul was devoured, becoming a personality fragment within Cawl's mind.
It was also in that conflict that Cawl's close friend Qiufu died under the barrel of a Bolter. Fortunately, Cawl managed to preserve his soul and various personality data.
Now, with Reality Warping Ability, Cawl had suddenly overcome such a bottleneck that would have been impossible under normal circumstances, achieving this feat akin to resurrection.
Of course, this undoubtedly involved the use of various forbidden and heretic knowledge.
After the others present had greeted the reborn Archmagos Qiufu, Cawl continued with his introductions.
"And this one."
Pointing to another entity beside him, Cawl introduced, "After joint design by Archmagos Qiufu and myself, this is the final product, which can make up for the lack of firepower in the team."
Adam also shifted his gaze, narrowing his eyes to examine it closely.
It was an exceptionally tall Domitar-class Robot.
Of course, this name might not be widely known; to put it another way—Iron Circle Robot.
That's right, it was the honor guard of the Daemon Primarch Perturabo, Lord of the Iron Warriors Legion. This type of robot possessed extremely strong defense and offense, with outstanding combat capabilities.
And it seemed there was more to it than just that.
Adam could see that this robot was also equipped with a large number of unidentified weapons.
"Yes, I installed every mechanical relic I could find."
Belisarius Cawl excitedly introduced, "Including the Corona Blaster, Arc Scourge, Personal Void Shield, Quantum Annihilator, Grace of the Omnissiah, Sacristan Autorepulsor, Numinasta Power Coffin, Mortis Memoriam, Saint Cyllia Autopurifier, and so on and so forth."
Absurd.
The firepower of this thing might already be comparable to an Extinction Relic?
This was too exaggerated.
Moreover, the intelligence of this thing was probably not low. According to Adam's understanding of Kael the Great Sage, there might even be a degraded Cawl serving as an operator inside, though it wasn't showing now.
"Excellent, with this, the chances of exploring that Necrons tomb have greatly increased."
Adam pondered for a moment, then suddenly remembered something: "Oh, by the way, I have a discovery I need to tell you about."
"What discovery?"
Cawl was momentarily stunned.
"It's intelligence about the Necrons."
Invisible psychic energy surged, pulling the molten steel wreckage over and placing it in the center of the clearing.
"Just now, I examined the Necrons remnants left on the battlefield and came to a… somewhat peculiar conclusion."
"What conclusion?"
Cawl examined the Necron remnant before him, as if he had discovered something, "This feeling… it seems different from other materials?"
"Yes, you guessed correctly."
Adam nodded, confirming his speculation, "The metal that constitutes the bodies of these xenos is called living metal. It possesses self-repairing abilities like biomass, but that's not the key point."
"The important thing is that this metal should come from the gods of the real universe—the C'tan. Therefore, it is vastly different from other metals, and it actually has a relatively good hume index."
"Therefore, using Reality Warping Ability to modify or create this material will be much more laborious than with other materials."
Upon hearing this news, everyone present was slightly stunned.
This was truly bad news.
However, before they could show their worry, Adam slightly extended his hand towards the mechanical relic.
A gust of wind blew, and the living metal, which he had just said could resist Reality Warping Ability to a certain extent, turned into ashes and drifted away.
"However, its Reality Intensity is only slightly higher."
Adam stood up and explained, "This material can indeed slightly resist warping, making it difficult for a Level 2 Reality Warper. But for me now, it's just a little more troublesome."
Seeing such strong evidence, everyone present breathed a sigh of relief.
All preparatory work was complete.
Everyone gathered, forming an extremely extravagant exploration team.
Two Adeptus Mechanicus Magos, one Cybernetic Automaton, one Primaris Astartes, one Imperial Guard, one Living Saint, one Alpha-level Psyker, one Imperial Commissar, and Adam himself.
To be honest, it would be virtually impossible for the current Imperium of Man to assemble such an extravagantly configured team.
Such a team would undoubtedly bring endless surprises to the Necrons they would encounter next.
Adam waved his hand, gave the command, and led the way towards the massive hole dug by drilling equipment in the center of the camp.
"Then, without further ado, let us go and find out."
Inside the tunnel.
The hole excavated by the drilling equipment was wide enough to allow the exploration team to pass through.
The group headed down the passage toward the underworld at an uncanny speed—after all, none of them were ordinary humans.
As they marched, the silence was suddenly broken.
Sibylla spoke up, "Lord Adam, do we need to call those traitor Astartes back to join us? I think it could help offset our numerical disadvantage."
"That won't be necessary."
Adam scanned their surroundings. "The subterranean world is too narrow for a large force to deploy. If the need arises, I can summon them via Warp teleportation."
He paused and added, "Besides, those Astartes have other missions right now; they are hunting down the fleeing Greenskins in the Hive City."
"These Necrons are nothing more than mobile tombstones with no souls to devour. Even if we called the Astartes, they wouldn't be of much use. My goal is simply those high-tech artifacts or perhaps the star god shards buried deep within the tomb."
Having received a reasonable explanation, Sibylla said no more.
After walking for a while longer, everyone present became alert almost simultaneously, sensing danger approaching.
Kael the Great Sage looked at the Augur screen and spoke quickly, "High-energy signature detected approximately 200 meters ahead—"
Before he could finish, over a dozen grid-like Dimensional Portals suddenly snapped open ahead of them.
The Flayers unceremoniously bared their claws and fangs at these uninvited guests.
However, these monsters, who usually reveled in the thrill of slaughter, had clearly bitten off more than they could chew this time.
The Firstborn and Sibylla acted almost simultaneously, unleashing massive waves of psychic energy that instantly froze the swarm of enemies in place.
At the same time, the others opened fire. Various weapons spat tongues of flame, easily turning those Flayers into floor decorations.
Even the most advanced Reanimation Protocols could not recover them from damage of this magnitude.
Having dealt with this wave of trouble, someone asked, "Have the Necrons detected our intrusion?"
"Not necessarily."
Adam explained, "Due to their curse, Flayers are often shunned by normal Necrons and exiled from all Tomb Worlds. It's unlikely they are using Flayers to monitor our movements."
"Your knowledge of these xenos is truly admirable."
Hearing Adam's explanation, the Custodian could not help but praise him.
In the current era, the Imperium of Man has not yet fought a large-scale war against the Necrons; most encounters are localized conflicts.
Combined with the Imperium's stagnant information-processing capabilities, most Imperial combatants are almost entirely ignorant of the Necrons, having never even heard of them.
That Adam was so knowledgeable about these xenos surprised everyone present.
However, most of them simply attributed this to The Emperor's divine power and accepted it as such.
After advancing further, the exploration team reached their destination—the source of the anomalous signal Kael the Great Sage had detected earlier.
What appeared in everyone's sight was an extremely thick and tall black metal gate. The patterns on the door were certainly not of human culture, and the entire structure radiated an ancient aura refined by time, as if it had stood there for tens of thousands of years.
"Let me."
Kael the Great Sage stepped forward, stopping Adam, who was eager to use his Reality Warping Ability to annihilate a large hole directly through the door.
As he stepped, soil flew up and was rapidly twisted and reconstructed. Several Servo-Skulls, equipped with various professional tools, emerged and plugged into the Tomb Gate's network.
Massive streams of data flowed rapidly through the eyes of the skulls. Soon, the heavy gate reacted, emitting a loud, grinding noise.
Under the combined hacking of the two Adeptus Mechanicus Archmagi, along with a little help from reality-warping power, even the formidable Necron gate seals could not hold out for long.
"Rumble—"
With a loud boom, the gate shook, the surrounding earth and stone trembled, and everyone felt a slight vibration in the ground.
The gate slowly swung open, revealing the scene inside. But at the same time, as if to welcome their arrival, a violent rain of Gauss rays swept toward them!
"Watch out!"
Violent psychic energy, shaped by the Psyker's will, transformed into a thick shield that forcibly blocked the path in front of the team, with the Necron attacks causing ripples across its surface.
However, even with the full defense of an Alpha-level Psyker, the Psychic Shield appeared somewhat unstable under the concentrated fire of so many weapons.
Adam looked inside and couldn't help but gasp.
He saw Necron Warriors wielding Gauss Flayers standing in a silent, uniform formation, with many Immortals mixed into their ranks. Their weapons fired in unison, the extremely dense Gauss rays forming a terrifying web of fire.
Behind them stood tall Canoptek Spyders and Canoptek Doomstalkers. Accompanied by roaring booms, terrifying Antimatter Particles capable of easily destroying a Super-heavy Tank were fired one after another, relentlessly pouring onto the Psychic Shield.
A conventional Imperial force would be helpless before such firepower; they likely wouldn't even have time to react before being instantly reduced to dust floating in the air, their souls returning directly to the Golden Throne.
However, the situation now was entirely different.
The Kastelan Robots strode forward, raising their heavy weapons high as the various mechanical relics mounted on them fired in unison.
Solar Atomizers sprayed beams that easily melted elite units into molten iron; Arc Scourges flashed repeatedly through the Necron ranks, whipping up lightning storms that mowed them down like wheat; and Quantum Annihilators performed precision strikes, turning enemy vehicles into living bombs and destroying them one by one.
Yarrick reacted quickly, raising his Power Klaw and giving the Living Saint a heavy shove on the back.
A blinding flash of teleportation light flickered, and Lucia instantly appeared in the midst of the Necron cluster.
???
Before the Necrons could react, the Living Saint's wings flapped once, and her figure blurred into afterimages as she darted back and forth. Exploiting the Necrons' sluggishness in melee combat, she left a trail of falling machines in her wake.
Fire support from the Adeptus Mechanicus Magos arrived swiftly. Under Cawl's command, Servo-Skulls took flight, their various weapon machine spirits instantly delighted as they spat lethal fire.
Plasma, melta, specialized bolters, arc weapons, Eradication Rays, Volkite Weapons, Gamma Rays... a vast array of Adeptus Mechanicus technology and "brute force" vented the fury of the omnissiah, even going so far as to completely suppress the Necrons' web of fire in a defiant reversal.
After a short and intense engagement, a final Plasma Lance shot from Adam's hand completely destroyed the last Canoptek Doomstalker, thoroughly purging the resistance so carefully prepared by this Tomb World.
At this moment, deep within the Tomb World.
Looking at the now silent Trazyn, Tomb Technician Sardon asked in confusion.
"Is this... normal?"
"I, The Infinite, have lived for so long and seen so much..."
Trazyn slowly shook his head, his voice strained.
"But I must admit, this scene... I truly have never seen before."
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This holyday season was so tiring... I slept till 11 a.m today lol