"Your attempt to challenge the great Szarekh has failed.
"That outcome was inevitable."
Hapthatra the Radiant openly mocked Eden, attempting to undermine the authority of the Lord of Hope and brand him as a defiant usurper.
The Silent King and his followers had been watching the encirclement of the Lord of Hope from the beginning. The moment they saw him trapped, they immediately sent their taunts.
As far as they were concerned, there was no possibility of escape. The disparity in military strength was so overwhelming that no degree of tactical brilliance could overcome it.
"Defiant ones, in recognition of your noble status, the great Szarekh has chosen to grant you a single chance at forgiveness."
Speaking in the Silent King's name, Mesophet the Shadowed Hand delivered the latest decree.
Any Necrontyr dynasty beneath the Lord of Hope's command would be spared from destruction, provided it renewed its allegiance to the Silent King.
Yet to the surprise of Szarekh and his followers, despite being surrounded on every side, not one Phaeron or noble accepted the offer. They remained steadfast beside the Lord of Hope.
"They've underestimated the power of faith and the Necrontyr's hunger for emotion and souls."
Eden was not surprised.
Those Necrontyr who had experienced emotion and embraced the new god were nearly incapable of betraying him.
More precisely, they did not dare betray the new god Pluto. They feared losing his favor, along with their hope of one day returning to life.
Such was the power of faith and desire. It could sustain them even in the face of death.
As for recently allied dynasties such as the Charnovokh Dynasty, they remained silent because their leaders were currently inside the flagship's domed hall. If any of those Phaerons or nobles dared make a move, Zahndrekh and the others would tear them apart.
"Slaves of a false god, it seems you intend to cling to your ignorant faith.
"Then you shall face the wrath of the great Szarekh. Every last one of you will be reduced to ash beneath the guns of his tomb fleets!"
Hapthatra realized the truth and cast a disgusted look at Zahndrekh and the others. He made no further attempt to persuade them to surrender.
If those fools wished to die for their god, so be it.
Once those high-ranking nobles were dead, Szarekh's forces could seize their tomb fleets and armies of living metal all the same.
Hapthatra's voice grew even more scornful as he stared at the Lord of Hope.
"Perhaps you should start running, failure. Not that struggling will do you any good."
"Who said I intended to run?" Eden replied, his voice carrying an authority that brooked no argument.
"The Xindu System and the Dais of Dominion are about to welcome their true master. And I, the King of Hope, will never flee.
"I know that the noble Necrontyr have been waiting for this. They have been waiting for me to arrive.
"Admit it. You can no longer tolerate the Silent King. You cannot bear to share the same galaxy with him. You have been waiting for someone to drag him down from his throne.
"And now... I am here!"
Special transmission devices carried Eden's highly incendiary declaration beyond his tomb command flagship, across the surrounding region, and throughout the entire Xindu System.
He had always placed great importance on propaganda and the spread of his message. He had even developed numerous counter-jamming systems to ensure that his words and ideas could reach any region without anyone being able to stop them.
Now, while surrounded and with the Silent King's vigilance at its lowest, Eden abruptly struck.
He broadcast his message throughout the Xindu System, flooding it with pulsed transmissions designed to inflame the Necrontyr's resentment toward their sovereign.
He knew that the emotion virus was already spreading. Soon, it would begin to take effect. Seeds of discontent and rebellion would take root, sprout, and then grow with uncontrollable speed.
"I believe the loyal inhabitants of the Xindu System, and every Necrontyr who longs to reclaim the glory of the past, will not stand in the way of their new king.
"You've had enough of the fool sitting upon the Dais of Dominion and the sycophants groveling at his feet."
Eden stared at the projected images of the Silent King and his followers, whose expressions had suddenly changed.
Then he gave the order without hesitation.
"Continue forward!"
The tomb flagship and its elite fleet advanced directly toward the encirclement, heading straight into the vast mass of tomb fleets blocking their path.
The elite fleet appeared pitifully small by comparison. It looked as though the dense formations of dynastic warships surrounding it would swallow it whole at any moment, leaving no chance of survival.
Yet Eden's fleet continued forward with unwavering resolve.
It did nothing but advance.
There was no sign that it intended to flee. Its ships did not even target the enemy or form a defensive formation. They simply pressed ahead, unyielding and unstoppable.
It was as if they truly believed the tomb fleets ahead, which outnumbered them several times over, would not open fire.
Every gaze was now fixed upon this region of the battlefield.
Across the system, the Necrontyr watched with mounting tension as the fate of the Lord of Hope hung in the balance.
"He should not die here. His death would be a tragedy for our entire race..."
The ancient Phaeron was reluctant to admit it, but he could not help respecting the Lord of Hope.
"Perhaps we should take a moment to remember what reduced our noble race to this wretched state."
Guided by Eden's words, several Phaerons and nobles began searching through their ancient memories, wondering when the Necrontyr had first fallen into such a miserable fate.
Had it begun with the two Wars of Secession that had torn at the foundations of their species?
Was it their declaration of war against the Old Ones and the reckless decision to begin the War in Heaven?
Or had it been their foolish decision to welcome the loathsome C'tan, resulting in the loss of their entire race's souls?
The Phaerons and nobles considered the question.
Every one of those disasters seemed to be directly connected to the Silent King. In several cases, he had personally suppressed all opposition before issuing the orders that led to catastrophe.
After Szarekh inherited the throne of the Silent King, he led the dynasties in a frenzy of expansion.
But that blind expansion, combined with the inequitable distribution of its benefits, planted the seeds of disaster.
The situation gradually spiraled beyond his control. Disputes over resources, colonial rights, and succession, coupled with the Triarch's arrogant attitude, made reconciliation between the Triarch and the frontier dynasties impossible.
Thus began the First War of Secession.
When the conflict erupted, the Silent King not only failed to suppress the rebellious dynasties in time, but also allowed the war to expand until it engulfed the entire Necrontyr empire.
The survival of their entire species was placed in jeopardy.
Faced with such chaos, Szarekh devised his second brilliant disaster in an attempt to end the division.
He decided to create an external enemy to force his people to unite. He inflamed the Necrontyr's hatred of the Old Ones, accusing them of hoarding immortality and humiliating the Necrontyr, then declared war on the dominant species without hesitation.
The War in Heaven began.
In the Silent King's mind, the solution was perfectly simple. Once a war between species began, everyone would unite against their common enemy.
A flawless plan!
And in one respect, he was right.
The First War of Secession ended, and the Necrontyr devoted themselves to the War in Heaven. The flames of war spread across the galaxy.
Unfortunately, Szarekh had overlooked one minor problem.
The Necrontyr were challenging the dominant power of the galaxy. Losing this war would be far more catastrophic than any internal conflict.
No matter who won a civil war, at least one Necrontyr faction would survive.
But if they lost the War in Heaven, their entire species would be doomed. At best, they might survive as slaves of the Old Ones.
It did not take long for Szarekh and the Triarch to realize something deeply troubling.
They were screwed.
The Necrontyr, it seemed, could not defeat the Old Ones.
The War in Heaven was even more brutal than the War of Secession, yet the Necrontyr were utterly outmatched by the Old Ones and their command of the Webway and higher-dimensional technology.
The Silent King, the Triarch, and the many Necrontyr dynasties were beaten so thoroughly that they nearly shut down in despair. They were incapable of offering meaningful resistance.
That left them with a painful choice.
Should the Necrontyr continue the war, or seek peace with the Old Ones?
If they obediently surrendered, apologized to their mighty Old One overlords, bowed their heads, and accepted the role of junior subjects, they might at least survive.
If they kept fighting, their entire species might be exterminated.
The peace faction clashed with the Silent King over this question, and the Second War of Secession began.
The Silent King and the Triarch insisted on continuing the war against the Old Ones.
They maintained that if the Necrontyr surrendered, their species would never rise again and would remain vassals of the Old Ones for all eternity.
More importantly, the Silent King and the Triarch had started the war.
If they admitted defeat and surrendered, they would be held responsible for the disaster.
The reckoning that followed could cost Szarekh the throne and strip him of the title of Silent King, an outcome he could never accept.
As long as the war continued, however, he could preserve his authority.
Therefore, Szarekh insisted that the War in Heaven continue.
But the underlying problem remained.
"The Triarch understood that if these problems were not resolved, our species would be completely destroyed."
Those were the Silent King's own words at the time.
The crisis stood plainly before them. The Old Ones' ferocious attacks and blockades, combined with the Second War of Secession, had pushed the Necrontyr empire into an even more precarious position.
They could not win, yet if they continued fighting, their species would eventually become extinct.
Under the crushing weight of these crises, the Silent King embarked upon his third brilliant disaster.
He sought outside aid by inviting the gods of the galaxy, intelligent life-forms born within the hearts of stars, to become his allies.
In their desperation, the Silent King and the Triarch found the C'tan and negotiated with one known as the Deceiver.
The Deceiver promised that the C'tan would help the Necrontyr defeat the Old Ones and grant them eternal life.
There was no denying that it was an extraordinarily tempting and generous offer.
Under unbearable pressure and faced with such temptation, the few dissenting voices were quickly drowned out by desperate desire.
The Silent King and the Triarch soon formed an alliance with the C'tan, and the Necrontyr stepped into an abyss from which there would be no return.
The C'tan gave them the process of biotransference, allowing them to abandon their frail flesh and live forever within bodies of living metal.
The price was their flesh and their souls.
When the Silent King and the Phaerons saw the C'tan feasting upon the life energies extracted from the Necrontyr, they realized that nothing could be undone.
They had become dependent upon the C'tan. Worse still, they had become slaves to those loathsome stellar beings.
It was a period of profound humiliation for the Necrontyr.
Although they eventually defeated both the Old Ones and the C'tan, their entire species had been driven to the brink of collapse.
They no longer possessed the strength to rule the galaxy and were forced into the Great Sleep for sixty million years.
"That arrogant bastard Szarekh was never capable of leading the Necrontyr!" the ancient Phaeron raged as his thoughts reached this point. "He destroyed everything, then fled rather than face judgment!"
After leading the Necrontyr into the abyss, the Silent King had fled the galaxy.
Now he had returned to manipulate power once again, dragging them into yet another tragic war.
"What has Szarekh done to the Necrontyr?!"
"He is the one responsible for all of this!"
"That man was never fit to command the Dais of Dominion! He inherited his position through blood and nothing more!"
Under Eden's influence, a growing number of Phaerons, nobles, and high-ranking Necrontyr began recalling the Silent King's many failures.
They began questioning Szarekh's competence and whether he still possessed the right to lead their species.
The more the Necrontyr elite thought about it, the clearer it seemed.
It truly was Szarekh who had led them into disaster and condemned them to their tragic fate.
Eden was broadcasting these accounts of their ancient history throughout the system using his specialized pulse transmitters. Naturally, many of the key details had been carefully polished to blacken the Silent King's reputation as thoroughly as possible.
Given the way Necrontyr society was structured, slander campaigns and historical reckonings were the most effective means of undermining an opponent's prestige.
The Silent King himself employed two mouthpieces to attack his rivals.
Eden's methods, however, were far more comprehensive.
At the critical moment when every Phaeron's attention was focused upon this confrontation, he had effectively seized a giant loudspeaker and publicly denounced the Silent King to the entire system, catching Szarekh completely off guard.
After sleeping for so long, the Necrontyr's memories were incomplete.
When they saw Eden's accusations and compared them with the fragments they still remembered, how could they not be filled with righteous fury?
The emotion virus further magnified their reaction.
If the Necrontyr had remained as cold and unfeeling as before, such a transformation would have been impossible. Eden could never have ignited their anger so easily.
In his opinion, the Silent King simply was not very good at his job.
At every critical turning point in Necrontyr history, Szarekh had made one disastrous mistake after another, sending his entire species racing headlong into the abyss.
Of course, not all the blame truly belonged to the Silent King.
The nature of the Necrontyr race itself had also played a part. Their short lifespans had deprived them of the patience to wait, leaving them desperate for immediate results.
It was an inborn flaw.
That impatience had driven extraordinary productivity and creativity, allowing the Necrontyr to rise swiftly and challenge the Old Ones.
Yet at critical moments, it also prevented them from remaining calm and making correct decisions for the distant future.
It reminded Eden of his homeland. His own country could patiently devote itself to a single objective across far longer cycles, while many others changed their policies from one morning to the next.
None of that mattered now.
Under Eden's guidance, every last scrap of blame would be dumped squarely upon the Silent King!
For the mightiest Necrontyr, beings capable of returning from destruction again and again, the only way to truly defeat an enemy was to destroy their authority and end their rule.
"Damn him! This is slander! Complete fabrication!"
"Do none of you remember that it was I, Szarekh, who saved our species? Without me, all of you would have perished in the Wars of Secession or died from disease!"
"No one is more worthy of this throne than I am!"
Upon the Dais of Dominion, the Silent King watched the Lord of Hope spread his defamatory account of history. His living-metal body trembled violently.
He was shaking with rage.
Fake history! All of it!
Even so, he maintained his majestic posture and refused to speak aloud. If he lost control now, the blow to his authority would be even greater.
Put simply, the ancient codes forbade the Silent King from speaking directly to his subjects.
If he began screaming abuse in public, the entire dignified image he had cultivated would collapse.
Then Szarekh saw the grotesque imitation Eden had projected of him.
It depicted a senile, drowsy king slumped upon the Dais of Dominion.
The sight nearly made him cough up blood on the spot, despite no longer possessing any. Even his living-metal face seemed to flush red.
The Silent King was completely numb.
Never in his existence had he suffered such vicious slander and humiliation. His chest seethed with unbearable fury.
"This is the highest command. Destroy them. Now. Immediately!"
Through Hapthatra the Radiant, the sovereign of the Necrontyr issued his order to the tomb fleets surrounding the Lord of Hope.
He could not tolerate Eden remaining alive for even one more moment.
(End of Chapter)
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