"Lowly vermin, how dare you enter this space." A gargantuan, formless pressure surged toward Alexei.
Alexei's expression remained unchanged; the "Interface" before him shielded him from the onslaught.
"Interesting. What exactly are you? You do not seem like the rest of your frail kin," the voice of the mountain spoke again.
"The traitors who imprisoned you have awakened. I can set you free, but you must help us deal with them." Alexei's voice was unnervingly calm.
"Are you threatening us?" the voice suddenly flared with uncontrollable rage. "No living thing can threaten us. We are the only true Gods of this world!"
Suddenly, a powerful psychic force flooded into Alexei's body. They wanted to peer into this creature's inner self; they wanted to know what was happening in the world outside.
The moment their consciousness touched Alexei's soul, countless fragmented memories poured into the C'tan's mind: the Emperor of Mankind, the four Gods of the Warp, the Tyranid swarms...
"Amusing. Truly amusing. A pathetic weapon... a group of consciousnesses formed by aetheric disturbances daring to call themselves gods... and a swarm of hungry, primitive organisms. A strange era. This galaxy no longer possesses any sense of honor."
"Had your fill?" As the words fell, Alexei shut his mind. A massive suction force suddenly erupted within him, pulling them into his core. He was like a parched beast, greedily drinking in everything they were.
It was just a small shard, and it was within this mental space. Had it been a complete C'tan, he might not have survived, but these were likely the weakest of all known shards. Alexei looked coldly at the energy he was systematically absorbing and the steadily increasing progress bar.
"NO!!! WHAT IS THIS?!" The voice turned to panic. They tried desperately to withdraw their power, but seeing it was futile, a massive burst of energy erupted. Time within the space began to flow backward.
They returned to the initial moment of the encounter, discarding the energy that had been consumed—like a lizard shedding its tail.
"What in the name of existence are you?!" Their voice was laced with a mix of disbelief and fury.
"I am human," Alexei said flatly. "Are you willing to communicate now?"
"Human? No, no, no. You are absolutely not one of those frail primitives." As the words fell, countless glimmers of light appeared in the dark space, coalescing into a blurred, humanoid silhouette.
Alexei stared at the sight. *Is this a C'tan?*
"State your purpose, unknown existence," the blurred humanoid light-phantom asked the being that looked like a normal human.
Alexei suppressed the impulse to completely devour the C'tan before him. It wasn't time yet, he thought. "I said it before: I can let you out, but you must annihilate every Necron out there."
"Yes... yes... we remember now. The damned traitors!" The C'tan shard began to roar again. "They locked us in here. We were forced to consume one another. Yes, yes... we are Great Beings. We are Time, we are Space, and the bond between the two. We are the C'tan, **Zarhulash the Potentate!**"
"We belong to the tides of stars and time; we are the manifestation of the form and existence of this universe!"
The light-shadow twisted and distorted. Alexei watched the mentally unstable shard, his lip twitching. *Has being locked up for so long driven it mad?*
"We gave them eternal life, and those ungrateful scraps dared to betray us! Let us out! We will destroy them!" The phantom continued its hysterical shrieking, its mouth shimmering with stolen starlight.
"...Fine. But you cannot attack my kin, and you are not permitted to leave my sight," Alexei responded indifferently. "I can eat you at any time."
"Who do you think you are?!" Endless energy began to gather again. The projection of the C'tan glared furiously at the calm Alexei. "We are the ultimate manifestation of order. No logic or illogic can constrain us!"
Alexei looked meaningfully at the shimmering C'tan. "That's a pity. You're finished."
In the next moment, Alexei's conscious projection moved toward the C'tan. The shard energy of Zarhulash the Potentate began to pour into Alexei's body as a massive gravitational pull tore at the C'tan.
"Wait! We agree! We agree!" The shards of Zarhulash began to scream as their consciousness started to dissipate.
"Too late. I don't need you anymore. Become my nourishment," Alexei said coldly.
As the last wisp of C'tan power flowed into him, the progress bar on the interface finally completed. The **Xel'naga** progress changed to **1.5/???**.
"Why is there a decimal point..." Alexei looked at the interface, speechless. Just as he was wondering what the effect of absorbing a C'tan shard would be, he was hit by a sudden sensation.
In an instant, Alexei felt as if he could control everything in existence, as if he possessed infinite, god-like power. The feeling came and went in a flash. When he regained his senses, a dark, grey crystal appeared at the bottom of the interface, energy surging within it.
Alexei focused his gaze and realized he could activate it. Familiar text appeared to explain:
After reading all the descriptions, Alexei's breathing quickened. The buffs this shard provided to him and his system upon activation were staggering.
**First: Terran equipment production speed is drastically increased.** It was essentially "door closes one second, equipment ready the next." Furthermore, due to the C'tan's power, this equipment was nearly impossible to corrupt, even if thrown into the Warp.
**Second: Zerg enhancements.** This made up for the lack of manpower. It directly accelerated the hatching process of the Swarm. Additionally, every linked individual in the Hive Mind network received a comprehensive boost to physical stats, psionic strength, and learning ability. Skills that previously took months to master could now be perfected in days, as if time itself had been accelerated for them.
**Finally: The Protoss enhancement—the ultimate answer to the enemies on Sotha.**
1. During the shard's activation, the power source for the Protoss will replace Soul Shards. This means he can directly summon Protoss without needing Warp Daemons.
2. Their existence time is extended indefinitely; they will not consume additional shard power while active. The Protoss will remain on the field until the energy within the crystal is completely exhausted.
The only drawback was an exaggeratedly long cooldown after the effect ended. However, the crystal could be strengthened by absorbing other C'tan shards, meaning it had room to grow.
"Hahahaha..." In the endless darkness, only Alexei's consciousness remained, laughing wildly. "Get ready to meet the true Sons of Aiur, you bastards."