"If it is purely life energy, then it would indeed be beneficial to me." Cegorach stroked his chin and spoke with a look of agreement. "Within the Warp, I too am considered a god of the Order faction."
"A god of Order?" Axis repeated with a hint of curiosity.
"That's right! The gods of the Warp are indeed different," Cegorach explained. "The strongest, of course, are those four bastards. They are the representatives of evil, corruption, hatred, and avarice; the very embodiment of darkness."
He continued, "Besides those four, there is a whole host of other gods, such as our own Aeldari pantheon and the deities born from the faith of other races. We are collectively known as the lesser gods, and our power levels vary wildly. The most powerful lesser gods can even go toe-to-toe with one of those four bastards, but the weakest among us couldn't even defeat one of your own kind, a human. Currently, the most powerful lesser gods are the twin deities of the Ork race, Gork and Mork. Though they are incredibly idiotic, they are both brutal and cunning."
"Their strength is comparable to that of Asuryan or even Khaine, the God of War, so their power is unquestionable. If they were to join forces, they could stand against a Chaos God without issue. They might not win, but they certainly would not be defeated easily. And then, of course, there are the gods of some of the weaker races." The Laughing God had generously provided Axis with a general breakdown of the divine hierarchy within the Warp.
Within the Immaterium, besides daemons, there were indeed other gods who existed, all of them born from the power of mortal belief.
However, Cegorach had omitted one crucial detail: the most powerful god in the Warp was the entity hidden within the soul of the Emperor of Mankind, the Dark King.
Should that being ever emerge, it would signify the final destruction of the entire universe.
Axis nodded.
It was just as the Laughing God had said; beyond the Chaos Gods, the Warp was home to numerous lesser deities.
Some were malevolent, while others were righteous and orderly, protecting the very races that had given them life. He recalled the T'au'va, the nascent goddess who would one day be born from the faith of the T'au and would watch over her people.
However, speaking of the gods in the Warp, there was one immensely powerful entity that deeply intrigued Axis.
In the grand cosmic scheme of the universe, its prestige and status were no less than that of the Dark King. In fact, it seemed to loom even above the four Chaos Gods themselves.
"Have you ever heard of the Tyranids?" Axis asked, "What level of power would you say their Great Devourer is?"
As far as Axis knew, the Tyranids had not yet arrived in the galaxy; their main fleets were still ten thousand years away. But this race was terrifying.
Their hive fleets contained vast numbers of psychic units, such as Zoanthropes, Norn-Queens, and various other synapse creatures. Even beasts like Hive Lords and Hive Tyrants possessed potent psychic power.
Whenever the Tyranids descended upon a planet, they brought with them the horrifying Shadow in the Warp, a phenomenon that drove psykers on the surface insane. The shadow was so profound that it severed all of the Imperium's astropathic communications. The planet, isolated and silent, would then be consumed.
In the 42nd Millennium, after the Great Rift tore across the galaxy, Hive Fleet Kronos had engaged a massive force of Chaos Daemons on the planet Shadowbrink in an unprecedented battle. The result was a decisive victory for the Tyranids, who had slaughtered the daemons in a near-total rout, a force which had included many Greater Daemons and Daemon Princes. In the judgment of the Hive Mind, the daemons of Chaos were merely competitors for its food, a rival predator.
To that end, the Tyranids had even evolved specialized organisms with the sole purpose of hunting and destroying the denizens of the Warp. They had no other function. And yet, despite this humiliating defeat, the four Chaos Gods had remained silent.
The Fourth Tyrannic War would one day push the Imperium of Man to the absolute brink, forcing Roboute Guilliman to create an artificial exterminatus zone within the Sol System itself to shield Holy Terra from the Tyranid threat.
In every aspect, the sense of dread this race inspired surpassed even that of the forces of Chaos. So, what kind of god was the Great Devourer that commanded them? Axis mused that it was at the very least no weaker than the four Ruinous Powers, and was possibly a great deal stronger.
However, the Great Devourer was likely not a creature purely of the Warp. It was probably a separate, independent entity.
Even by the time of the Lion's awakening in the 42nd Millennium, the main Tyranid swarms had still not reached the galaxy. This Great Devourer remained an absolute mystery, with no intelligence available about it.
The Laughing God looked utterly bewildered. "Please, I have never even heard of this race. Are they some kind of insectoid species? If you need me to, I can have my Harlequins investigate. But as for any god their race might have spawned, it is impossible for it to surpass the four Chaos Gods."
How could a god born from a single race be stronger than those four? Besides, he had never even heard of these so-called Tyranids. Were they just some weak species from a remote corner of the galaxy?
"You've never heard of them? Ah, that's right, they may not go by that name yet," Axis explained. "This race is extremely peculiar. They plunder all biomass in the universe. The entire race is a weapon, or rather, every single unit is soulless. They are all directed by a single, unified will called the Hive Mind. This Hive Mind possesses an insatiable hunger, an infinite appetite. These creatures are masters of genetic manipulation, and their cannon fodder swarms are numberless, even more terrifying than the greenskin Orks."
When it came to a war of attrition, the Orks were certainly formidable, but the Tyranids waged war with chilling efficiency.
They employed every conceivable tactic, from sneak attacks and brutal assaults to the most underhanded of stratagems.
No matter if it was Orks, Chaos Daemons, or humanity, no race that had ever fought the Tyranids could claim to have had a decisive advantage.
Hearing Axis's description, the Laughing God frowned. If this race was truly so fearsome, he should have heard of them. And if they could rival the greenskins in sheer numbers, then the god born from them would certainly be on par with those two brutish idiots, Gork and Mork.
"I do not recall ever hearing of such a race. Where did you acquire this information?" the Laughing God asked, shaking his head.
"I have my own channels," Axis said cryptically, "This race is highly unusual. Whenever they descend upon a planet, they bring with them a terrifying Shadow in the Warp. This shadow can distort the local energies of the Immaterium so completely that all astropathic signals are blocked.
"They also have a large number of psychic units, not much weaker than your Aeldari. Oh, and before their main invasion, they send out creatures known as Genestealers. You must be wary of these monsters. Once a host is implanted, they are overcome with a fanatical desire to reproduce.
"Any offspring they produce with another species will be born as a Genestealer hybrid, carrying the Tyranid taint. These hybrids can emit a powerful psychic beacon, guiding the Tyranid hive fleets like a lighthouse. And these Genestealers are all bald," Axis added. "They have a very strange appearance and they worship four arms… a Four-Armed Emperor, I suppose? They love to form cults." Axis gave a rough summary of the Genestealers, recounting what he knew about the Tyranids.
The Laughing God's expression grew serious. "Wait. Are you telling me, my friend, that a race this horrifying actually exists in the universe? It seems impossible. But if what you say is true, then I judge that this Great Devourer's power would indeed be no less than that of the four Chaos Gods."
At that moment, a nearby Harlequin stepped forward. "Great Cegorach, Lord Axis, we have never heard of this 'Tyranid' race. However, if we speak of 'Genestealers,' we do have some intelligence that matches Lord Axis's description perfectly."
"Oh? Tell us what you know," the Laughing God commanded.
"Yes," the Harlequin replied. "It was on an Ark we discovered in a region at the galaxy's edge. Onboard was an ancient Aeldari expeditionary party. When we found them, their appearance was very strange, just as Lord Axis described.
"They were bald, possessed psychic abilities, and some had even developed insectoid mutations. They worshiped a four-armed god and spoke constantly of a 'Day of Ascension,' when their ultimate deity would come to receive them. At the time, we concluded that they had been infected by some unknown biological virus that had transformed them into those monstrosities." The Harlequin noted that the leader of the Genestealer cult was of a respectable power level, but the other members were not particularly strong.
"How did you deal with this Genestealer cult? And how long ago did this happen?" Axis asked quickly.
He knew that if the Imperium of this 30K era encountered the Tyranids, they would stand a fighting chance, at least against the vanguard fleets. The Imperium of the Great Crusade was far more powerful than its 40K counterpart. These creatures were supposed to have been drawn to the galaxy by the Pharos beacon of the Imperium Secundus, so how had they appeared on the outer edges of the galaxy so early?
"Lord Axis," the Harlequin member replied, "once that Genestealer cult was discovered, it was utterly destroyed. That was approximately one hundred years ago."
The Aeldari held their genetic purity in the highest regard.
Upon discovering such twisted, mutated hybrids, they would have acted to eliminate them without a moment's hesitation.
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I'm back on track, I promise~ sooo.... some powerstones?!