The moment his psychic link with the six Necron Overlords was severed, the Silent King—who had been about to force his way back into the material universe from the warp—was consumed by fury!
It was one thing for his hidden strike force to be exposed, but to lose six Overlords, his true heirs whom he had painstakingly nurtured for tens of thousands of years, all in an instant?
This was a turn of battle not just beyond belief—it was utterly beyond imagination.
Not even in the bloodiest struggles against the Old Ones had he ever suffered such a grievous loss, such an utter humiliation!
And yet now, against some upstart who had only just risen to power, his vast Necron host—accumulated through endless patience and calculation—was collapsing like paper before the enemy's onslaught.
Lingering at the boundary between the warp and the material plane, the Silent King felt as though his own endless existence had reached a critical threshold.
One step forward, and ascension itself awaited. One stumble, and all that he was—body and soul—would be annihilated.
"No creature of flesh can bar my path! I am destined to reap all living flesh across the cosmos! The Silent King's benediction shall be infused into every race of this universe!"
His psychic presence flared with madness as he strode unflinchingly toward the final battle.
At that moment, an infuriating voice rang out behind him—the taunting tones of the half-man, half-rook:
"Getting angry won't help. That kid was born to kill you! Everything you are—yourself, your legions—he's dissected and countered it all perfectly!"
"Face it. Your era is over!"
The half-man mammoth cackled, twisting the blade:
"Honestly, even I'm starting to fear him. Give that brat enough time, and he'll unravel everything!"
The half-man lion gave a low, sinister laugh:
"If he can even uncover the secrets of our Star-God race, so much the better. With such a prodigy among us, perhaps we could finally put an end to our fractured, desperate existence."
The Silent King nearly exploded with rage.
"You energy-pool filth—enough! Be silent before your King!"
With that, he clenched his right hand in the void.
Three streams of liquid biometal poured forth, followed by coils of dark green psychic energy. They wrapped around the metals, binding them tight.
Like living serpents, the biometal slithered through the void, winding around the necks of the three Star-Gods, twisting into chains of ultimate humiliation.
Once bound, the three could no longer project their voices, nor even exert their will freely over their own colossal forms.
The Silent King gave a cold snort, and at last stepped from the warp into the material world.
"He's here!"
Roya's spirit trembled with focus as his immense psychic senses swept the starfield, locking onto the Silent King's manifestation.
From the black void at the heart of a dead sector, a necrodragon of wingspan greater than a hundred meters strode forth!
It had been shackled for too long, and now freed into realspace it released the reaper's rage festering deep within its consciousness.
Its killing intent and aura of annihilation blasted outward in a storm, spreading across the void.
Its frame—crafted from the highest-tier living metal—unfurled in all its dreadful glory.
In that instant, it seemed the very incarnation of every dead soul in the galaxy had returned, a harbinger of the Yellow Springs, suffused with suffocating death.
And this creature was but the Silent King's steed.
Upon its brow stood the Silent King himself. The particle flares in his eyes pulsed in perfect sync with those of the necrodragon, proof of a direct mind-link that made them one in battle.
In his right hand he gripped the three chains of green biometal.
Their other ends coiled around the necks of the three Star-Gods.
Each stood over fifty meters long and thirty meters tall. Even with no psychic radiance in their eye-sockets, their very presence exuded unbearable oppression.
Thus did the Silent King, supreme conqueror and harvester of the galaxy, manifest before Roya and his Expeditionary Army in his most terrible form.
At his arrival, the scattered Necron legions—who had been locked in combat with the expedition—instantly ceased fighting. As one, they turned and fell prostrate toward their sovereign.
As though failing to kneel before their King would bring a fate far worse than utter annihilation.
The expeditionary soldiers hesitated only a moment before swinging their blades with renewed ferocity, cutting down the kneeling Necron hosts without mercy.
In an instant, countless Necrons perished in abject submission, slaughtered where they groveled.
The Silent King's briefly steadied composure flared once more into wrath.
His psychic voice shook the entire starfield:
"Roya, whelp—do you dare face me in battle?"
Roya had already foreseen this challenge.
Given the battlefield's course, the Silent King had but one hope: to strike him down swiftly, and with that single blow reverse the tide, stave off annihilation, and reclaim retreat for his dying legions.
"You seek death? Then I'll grant it!"
Roya smiled faintly, broadcasting his answer across the stars.
He took a single step forward.
Yet in that step he traversed the warp and returned to realspace—two transitions in one motion.
From within the Hades he emerged into open void, barely a kilometer from the Silent King.
At the same time, he drew the Ancient Saint Mecha into the starfield, seating himself within its cockpit.
The Silent King came mounted upon a necrodragon and dragging three Star-Gods. Roya was confident, but not so arrogant as to face such might unarmed.
The Ancient Saint Mecha—long under reverse-engineering by his researchers—was at last summoned for its moment of glory.
"The Ancient Saint Mecha?" The Silent King jerked his chains and sneered. "This is the crutch you dare bring before your King?"
The three Star-Gods, tugged along the chains, raged like rabid beasts, their silent roars shaking the void as their aura bore down on Roya.
"Die!"
The Silent King cracked his chains like whips, lashing them across the Star-Gods' backs, goading them to hurl themselves at Roya!
Please drop some power stones support me at my
PS: Access the complete/finished chapters/series at Patreon: NanamiTL