However, just as the temporal field was about to take hold and the phase beam was a hair's breadth from touching Axis's back, a chilling and mocking smile curled upon his lips.
"I've been waiting for you, 'Archaeovist'. Or should I say, the King of Figurines."
The seemingly dim golden aura surrounding Axis suddenly erupted with an intensity far greater than what he had displayed against the C'tan Shard.
A brilliant green radiance flashed from his body.
His height surged to three and a half meters, his hair bristled into a green, explosive mane, and his eyes turned pure white, the pupils vanishing completely. A terrifyingly ferocious presence flooded the area.
Axis had entered the legendary Super Saiyan mode.
Currently, among the standard Super Saiyan, Legendary Super Saiyan, and Super Saiyan 4 forms, this one was the most energy-efficient for his stamina.
While the Super Saiyan God mode could be maintained permanently without burdening the body, Axis still preferred the raw brutality of the Legendary Super Saiyan form for actual combat. In this state, his strength could be exerted to its absolute limit, and the Ki within him surged forth incessantly, appearing truly inexhaustible.
"Haa! Hmph!"
A short, sharp shout filled with terrifying energy erupted from Axis! Solidified golden soundwaves mixed with his berserk Ki, blasting outward from his center like a supernova shockwave.
With a deafening boom, the strange field created by the stasis trap shattered like fragile glass under the impact of a roar containing pure life energy and destructive will.
The phase teleportation beam was also instantly washed away and annihilated by this torrent of violent energy.
Time-based technological devices might be able to trap a Daemon Primarch, or perhaps even a loyalist Primarch, but they were utterly useless against Axis.
The power of a God was simply beyond the comprehension of mortals.
The factions of the 40th Millennium might have faced gods before, but they were facing the C'tan of the universe, powerful entities born of the physical realm. Axis, however, had reached the level of a God on Immaterium and Materium simultaneously.
Axis's figure vanished instantly amidst the explosion of golden light, moving at a speed that defied belief.
In the next second, he appeared directly above the Necron stealth vessel disguised as debris.
Trazyn the Infinite watched all this with a look of utter disbelief. He had never imagined the opponent's strength would be so formidable.
This mysterious life form had actually managed to break free from his temporal and spatial binding device.
Hidden within his own ship, Anrakyr the Traveller also witnessed the situation. He narrowed his eyes and began to retract his god-killing weapon.
"Found you!" Axis's voice sounded like a death sentence.
His right foot, wreathed in golden flame, stomped down with the force to shatter stars.
With a resounding thud, the sturdy Necron submersible crumpled, deformed, and exploded as if struck by a falling meteor.
The delicate internal instruments and Trazyn's surrogate body were exposed to the cold void.
The ghostly lights in the eyes of Trazyn's avatar flickered wildly, filled with incredulous horror.
He hesitated not a moment to initiate the self-destruct sequence, while his core data stream frantically attempted to upload back to the Tomb World where his main body resided.
It seemed the target this time was far more difficult to deal with than he had imagined. But it mattered not; as the galaxy's greatest collector and Archaeovist, he had ample patience to play games with his acquisitions.
If he failed once, he would try a second time. If that failed, a third. He could fail countless times, but the opponent only needed to fail once.
"Wanna run?" Axis sneered. He spread the five fingers of his left hand, aiming directly at the avatar attempting to self-destruct.
A swirling vortex of energy, emitting a powerful suction force, formed instantly.
This was not an attack, but a seal.
The data stream of Trazyn's avatar and the energy building for the explosion were caught as if by an invisible giant hand. They were forcibly dragged, compressed, and sucked into a specially prepared sealing bottle in Axis's palm.
This was a new technique Axis had developed after mastering the power of a God.
The principle was simple: it utilized his divine power's sensitivity to Ki and pure energy to execute a sealing art.
While Necrons were said to have no souls, Axis saw it differently.
Their souls had merely been mostly devoured; there were still faint remnants that the C'tan had not fully consumed.
Otherwise, logically speaking, Trazyn would have no true self, and every one of his avatars would be the original.
The energy bottle shook violently as the ghostly green light inside crashed wildly against the walls, but the golden runes flowing over the glass held it firmly in place.
Axis weighed the bottle in his hand, looking at Trazyn's consciousness struggling like a trapped beast inside.
He revealed a victor's smile. "Now, take me to your treasury as a guest, Infinite One. Your collection contains things I want."
"How is this possible? What technology is this? Who are you? Why can you capture me in this manner? This is scientifically impossible! I am merely a stream of data; I can return at any time. The loss of this body has no effect on my original self," spoke Trazyn, sealed within the bottle.
The energy the opponent used was completely unknown, as was the method of sealing.
What kind of energy was this? It completely altered physical laws, sealing him into a small bottle. How was it achieved?
"There are many things you don't know, King of Figurines. Now, are you going to voluntarily lead me to your museum, or must I use violence to make you guide me?" Axis shook the small bottle in his hand.
On the other end of the battlefield, aboard the flagship The Eternal Traveller, Anrakyr witnessed everything.
He saw Axis's devastating power, the obliteration of the C'tan Shard, and Trazyn's ambush turning into capture.
Within his cold logic core, a command named "Retreat" was generated for the first time.
This human... no, this entity was a calamity far more terrifying than a C'tan Shard.
Without hesitation, he activated the emergency hyperspace jump protocols.
Under Axis's cold gaze, the massive Necron fleet hurriedly tore open space, fleeing the star system that had become a hellscape.
Axis floated in the void, surrounded by Necron debris. The energy bottle in his hand flickered with eerie light as he looked toward the Necron fleet attempting to tear through space.
With a cold sneer, he condensed a colossal sphere of green energy in his palm and hurled it forward.
Just as the Necron fleet was about to fully depart, the terrifying energy sphere intercepted their ships. It expanded violently, instantly swallowing everything.
In Anrakyr's incredulous eyes, his proud fleet, the army he had spent decades of painstaking effort to build, was completely reduced to ashes by Axis's casual strike.
Before the Legendary Super Saiyan, there was no escape. All must die.
After dealing with the remnants of the Necron fleet, Axis returned to the interior of his ship.
"Axis, you remain as powerful as ever. How do you intend to find the lair of this Necron?" Sanguinius walked over and asked.
Axis smiled, revealing the sealing bottle in his hand, and placed it on the floor.
"Sir, you wish to obtain something from me, correct? As long as you release me, and... and perhaps give me a little bit of that energy you just used as a collectible, we can trade for whatever you want. In truth, many of my collections were acquired through trade. I am no robber," the King of Figurines pleaded, still attempting to bewitch Axis with words.
However, he was unaware that the entity in the Warhammer universe who knew him best was standing right there.
As a Warhammer lore veteran, Axis knew the King of Figurines very well.
This guy was an unmitigated robber. He had no sense of honor. Given the chance, he could be fighting alongside you one second and ambushing you to add you to his collection the next.
"Actually, I don't intend to communicate much with you. Having fallen into my hands, your fate is already sealed." Axis powered down from the Legendary Super Saiyan mode right in front of Trazyn.
Red light then illuminated his body as he transformed directly into a Super Saiyan God.
In the Super Saiyan God mode, Axis's sensory perception was terrifyingly acute.
Whether it was the Dark King hiding in the void, existing neither in the material universe nor the Warp, or the yet-to-be-born Eldar God of Death, Axis could root them out.
A mere Trazyn hiding in a pocket universe posed no challenge.
In just a few moments, Axis located the pocket dimension where the opponent existed.
A smile appeared at the corner of Axis's mouth.
Following the link of that aura, he used Instant Transmission, taking the ship beneath his feet with him.
In an unknown star system, Axis used his divine power to violently tear open a rift and entered the pocket universe.
Pocket universes were incomplete new universes created during the birth of the main reality due to tears in space.
They could be as small as a planet or a city, but rarely exceeded the size of a solar system.
The Necrons had mastered arcane technology that allowed them to construct pocket universes within the folds of reality.
However, these places were incredibly dangerous and highly unstable; one wrong move could cause the pocket universe to swallow a star and turn into a terrifying black hole.
Here lay a massive Tomb World, the size of a planet. A green, metallic world. This was the lair of Trazyn the Infinite: Solemnace.
Upon arrival, Axis went straight to the main control room of the Tomb World. He violently used the Evil Containment Wave to seal the Necron Overlord's main body as well.
He then spent a little time eliminating every guard within the Tomb World.
It had to be said, the King of Figurines was quite confident. There were strictly no significant guard forces in his museum. This Necron Tomb World didn't even host many Necrons, for everything here was part of his collection.
Rumors existed that during the Fall of Cadia, the forces Trazyn released to fight Abaddon, a Custodian, a squad of Heresy-era Ultramarines, Inquisitor Greyfax, and several Imperial regiments, were actually his lowest-tier collections, the kind that could be discarded. He was merely clearing inventory because the museum was running out of space.
Trazyn finally realized he had offended someone he absolutely could not afford to provoke.
"Alright, now all your collections are mine. All of them," Axis said with a wicked grin.
Robbing the wealthiest person in the universe felt incredibly satisfying. Trazyn's collection was absolutely the most precious in the galaxy, bar none.
"By the stars, take what you want! But don't touch the exhibits! Don't touch them, I beg you!" Trazyn let out a heart-wrenching wail.
Someone was looting his treasures, looting the treasures of him, the great museum curator, the great collector, the great Archaeovist of history.
"No, no, no. You misunderstand. What is yours is now mine, and what is mine is still mine. Everything here now belongs to me," Axis declared.
"Let me see what good stuff you have. I heard you collected Primarchs? Authentic ones at that. Aside from them, there are clones, and Krorks, ancient Orks from the War in Heaven. And Chaos artifacts, members of almost every Space Marine Legion, vast numbers of Imperial Guard regiments, ancient Dreadnoughts, various Imperial spacecraft, and even products of the Golden Age, the Dark Age of Technology. Correct?"
Axis took Sanguinius and the two Kashas on a tour of Trazyn's museum.
There were so many treasures it was dazzling.
The array of items was truly magnificent.
Known collections included the Prismatic Galleries, new rare earth elements, and freeze-frame dioramas of significant galactic historical events. There were creatures trapped in stasis fields: Orks, Humans, Tyranids, other unknown xenos, and even Eldar.
There were Chaos Daemons and cloned Primarchs.
A clone of Fulgrim, loyal to the Emperor, along with clones of Lorgar and Vulkan, all sold to him by the "Old Veterinarian," Fabius Bile.
Additionally, there was a Krork, boasting combat power equivalent to a Primarch and completely unrivaled by the modern Warbosses.
There was the preserved moment of Vandire's decapitation, the skull of Sebastian Thor, and a C'tan Shard. Legionaries from the Horus Heresy, the lost Tanith regiments, and several companies of Vostroyan Firstborn.
Damaged but functioning Webway gates, an Eldar Harlequin troupe, and a clone of the Phoenix Guard Captain, Alkennix. A unit of Battle Automata, and combat units of the "Brides of the Emperor" from the Age of Apostasy, back when the Sisters of Battle called themselves brides, not daughters.
Axis showed no courtesy. He packed up all these collections. However, the destination was not a human vessel. Instead, he opened a channel to another universe. Axis intended to move Trazyn's entire collection to his own world.
This universe was too miserable.
For the living things, a change of scenery would be good. As for the inanimate objects, they might as well move too.
The spatial rift was torn open, connecting to Holy Terra in another dimension.
Sanguinius and the two Kashas looked at the giant portal in curiosity, amazed that Axis possessed such capability.
On the other side of the portal, Magnus, who had remained on Holy Terra, and the Regent Guilliman received Axis's notification immediately.
Without hesitation, they began arranging for Custodes and their own sons to help Axis move the goods.
"Axis, you really are something. We were still looking for this guy, and you've already handled him on the other side," Magnus remarked.
"This guy is cunning, but not cunning enough. You guys help move the stuff first. He has too many good things. Move them first, categorize them later," Axis replied.
He had just spotted an entire legion of Men of Iron and various models of Dreadnoughts.
Furthermore, Axis didn't even recognize most of the items present.
"This is indeed quite a bounty. Long time no see, Sanguinius. And, uh, the two sisters." Guilliman greeted Sanguinius before glancing at the two Kashas by Axis's side.
The Kasha from the grim darkness of the 40k timeline nodded numbly, while Axis's wife responded with a smile.
"Stop staring and come help. This portal can't be maintained for too long, 24 hours at most. Hurry up and move everything," Axis urged.
"In a minute!!"
A vast number of Custodes, along with Ultramarines and the Thousand Sons, entered Trazyn's domain and began the relocation.
Watching his collection being hauled away piece by piece, plundered right before his eyes, Trazyn felt as though his heart was being carved out with a knife.
"Aaaah! Just kill me! Kill me now! No! Sob! That's mine! No, don't touch that, by the gods, that is exceedingly rare! Be careful, don't drop it!" The King of Figurines, sealed in the bottle, let out soul-tearing screams. His agony was palpable.
Even without a soul in the traditional sense, theoretically incapable of feeling heartache, the King of Figurines currently felt a pain that words could barely describe.
"Don't worry, I won't leave you anything. Short pain is better than long pain; I'm just going to give you the maximum amount of pain all at once this time," Axis said with a demonic smile.
"Aaaah! No, no! Thief! You despicable thief!" Trazyn cursed furiously.
"Thanks for the compliment. But compared to you, the ancestor of thieves, the grandmaster of pilfering, I am still far behind. I still have much to learn from you," Axis replied, provoking the King of Figurines even further.
It took an entire day to move only one-tenth of the items. Axis rested for two days, then opened the inter-universal portal once again.
And the looting continued.
...
..
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ps?