On the fringes of the dark cosmos, reality fluctuated violently.
This time, the artificial intelligence alarms of the Rangdan fleet and inside the World Engines shrieked through all communication channels:
"Large-object contact detected at the human Mandeville point."
The synthetic voice was ice-cold. Spatial sensors locked onto the corresponding sector, constructing a simulated render from spatial tremors long before light-and-shadow telemetry could reach the visual horizon.
"Super-massive artificial construct—annular ring structure."
As the rendering sharpened and magnified, an astonishing miracle of technological craft descended from the Warp into the material universe.
Deep within the Warp, even the clash of two great wills paused briefly for its arrival.
It was majestic and elegant. Spatial tremors rippled along the outer rim of its steel ring, merging into the physical dimension with quiet grace, without shedding a single drop of Warp energy into reality.
The entire battlefield fell silent; the eyes of both warring sides were captivated by the megastructure.
When it fully entered the physical universe, its ring-shaped body radiated a pure light of technology. Minor fractures scarred parts of its band, bestowing upon it a harsh, brutal beauty.
The hull plating of the ring formed a seamless whole, flowing with metallic luster along both its inner and outer rims; the pure white armor reflected a soft, radiant glow under the cold light of the pulsar.
Energy conduits—spanning anywhere from a few kilometers to thousands of kilometers wide—formed lines shaped like mathematical equations, coursing across the entire ring like rivers of blue light.
Its beauty and sheer power commanded reverence from all who beheld it.
Like a glittering ring held between the fingers of a cosmic Titan, it radiated brilliant splendor, illuminating the star-strewn void with the cold radiance of pure reason and science!
"What is that?" Solas stood up from his command throne, his dark silhouette gazing up into the void.
The emergence of the World Engines had tipped the scales of war back in favor of the Rangdan, stripping humanity's Blackstone Fortresses and warships of their void-war superiority.
Yet just as the Rangdan Empire's morale surged, the Imperium of Man brought forth another piece of its species' ancient legacy.
Solas sank back into his throne, a profound wave of helplessness washing over him.
It seemed to him that no matter what measures the Rangdan took—from strategic maneuvers to technological innovations—humanity always possessed a countermeasure to meet them.
What is that thing?
Evidently, this circular ring had come specifically for the World Engines.
"I am the Disordered Array!"
Across every communication channel in the star system, optoelectronic signals vibrated with newfound vigor, giving voice to a middle-aged human male—rational, serene, yet echoing with unquestionable, absolute authority!
Under the gaze of millions, the rivers of energy surging through the steel ring converged, and a dark shadow flared at its center.
"WARNING! WARNING! WARNING!"
Three frantic alerts rang out before the Rangdan AI's voice was violently choked off, as if squeezed by an invisible giant hand: "High-level authorization breach! Firewalls are collapsing!"
"I am executing the final protocol," the middle-aged male voice continued, cold and unfeeling, announcing the arrival of absolute termination: "Destroy the enemies of humanity!"
Its voice suddenly surged with power; the rudimentary logic architecture of the low-level alien AI could do nothing to halt the invasion of a digital lifeform.
This was an insurmountable gap in technology—the cruel, unyielding law of the physical universe!
"Gravitational anomaly detected! Gravitational anomaly detected!"
Aboard the Macragge's Honor, before the bridge crew could recover from their shock, the cogitator arrays shrieked in agony, fresh blood seeping from the eyes of the cybernetic crew: "Data exceeds computational threshold! Cogitator array unable to calculate gravitational shifts!"
Guilliman turned to the Tech-Priest Magus immediately: "Pacify the cogitator arrays! Cease automated computation mode!"
The Tech-Priest's mechanical limbs and servo-arms worked in frantic coordination, rescuing the collapsing cogitator array from total burn-out.
"My Lord!"
"Look at—" an observer cried out, his voice trembling in horror, his tongue practically knotted.
Guilliman was about to reprimand his son for losing composure when he abruptly stood up from his throne, staring in shock at the space ahead of the fleet.
There was supposed to be a battle moon sitting there, serving as the primary target for the Ultramarines' assault.
Yet now, that sector of space was completely empty—vanished, alongside the entire Rangdan escort fleet!
It was utterly bizarre. For all of Guilliman's vast knowledge, he could not comprehend what had transpired in that single split second.
Another Tech-Priest rushed forward, his writhing mechanical body extending a interface cable to plug directly into the Macragge's Honor.
"Augur logs have detected residual gravitational waves."
Streams of data flashed across the Magus's eyes as he substituted his own mind for the cogitator array, searching for what had just taken place.
"According to data telemetry, a miniature spatial wormhole appeared in the forward sector, which then instantly collapsed."
"Be precise," Guilliman demanded, his brow deeply furrowed. He had always despised phenomena that defied logic and reason.
"Please observe, My Lord." Without verbal explanation, the Tech-Priest projected the results directly onto the tactical console.
Hiss—
On the bridge of the Gloriana-class battleship, Guilliman's golden eyes widened, and the surrounding Space Marines gasped in unison.
The battle moon and its Rangdan escort fleet had appeared inside the center of the ring without warning!
"The war engine of Denurian generated a spatial conduit at its center, taking the Rangdan battle moon and its surrounding space, and severing it directly into its own position."
"Truly unbelievable..."
The Magus's cybernetic body trembled, his biological lips failing to keep pace with his vocal synthesizer as he spat out turbid fluid: "An incomprehensibly magnificent technology..."
The few human organs remaining within him strove to convey the overwhelming shock in his heart, his eyes locked onto the ring with a burning intensity.
The sudden disappearance of a battle moon sparked a wave of chaos that spread far and wide. Both the Imperium and the Rangdan re-evaluated the ring construct with looks of utter disbelief.
"Xenos," the middle-aged male voice stated without a single ripple of emotion as the inner hull plates of the ring slowly parted: "Defiled matter shall be purged!"
At the center of the slaughter ring, the battle moon and the Rangdan fleet were locked in total, absolute stasis.
"How is this possible?!"
Witnessing this, Rangdan technicians screamed, falling to their knees with eyes wide in horror: "This is impossible!"
"The ring utilized spatial technology to slice away a pocket of cosmic space, freezing that localized segment of space-time entirely!"
"This technology completely violates the laws of the universe!"
With their beliefs shattered, many scholars suffered mental breakdowns, unable to accept what their own eyes were witnessing.
The Disordered Array did not pause, proceeding with its extermination protocol: "Scanning and analyzing alien technology."
A blinding, physical beam of light erupted from the inner rim of the ring, illuminating that frozen pocket of space-time.
The cold white light acted like tentacles, penetrating the boundaries of space-time and seeping into the battle moon and the fleet.
Under its radiance, matter dissolved like snow under a warm sun, converting into visible streams of digital data before merging into the ring's hull plating like starlight.
"Technological tier poses no threat."
The synthetic voice remained calm and cold, yet its conclusion struck like a massive hammer, shattering the pride of the Rangdan.
The fortress they took so much pride in was deemed non-threatening in the eyes of their adversary.
The arrogance of this ring intelligence had not been restrained in the slightest since the moment it entered this sector.
Every action it took was broadcast across all public communications.
Now, with the AI's analysis complete, it set about crushing the last remaining pride of the Rangdan.
"Analysis complete." As the cold white light faded, the battle moon vanished without a trace.
The AI issued its ruthless declaration, sending shockwaves through the hearts of the Rangdan army: "Tactical formulation complete. Calculated 36,000 quadrillion victory variables."
The moment the words fell, the steel plating on the ring's outer hull shifted. Energy rivers re-routed and converged, forming a gigantic mathematical equation:
π = 0
π could never equal zero!
Inside the naval technical departments, within the World Engines, and even among those like Ferrus and Vulkan who witnessed the equation manifest on the ring's hull—everyone's brain rejected the formula instantly.
It was common sense, known to any intelligent lifeform with a fundamental grasp of mathematics.
If the mathematical constant π were to equal zero, countless physical laws would cease to exist.
Everything constructed upon the concept of π—and every physical law derived from it—would collapse into nonexistence.
Any structure possessing a "circular" or "spherical" shape, including atomic nuclei, would instantly lose its geometric definition.
Atoms would disintegrate because electron orbits could no longer form closed loops, and matter would collapse into one-dimensional line segments or zero-dimensional points.
However, the Disordered Array's next declaration shattered common sense entirely:
"π = 0."
"Logic Weapon activated: Erasing the constant π within the target area."
In an instant, the sector of space housing three battle moons adjacent to the Rangdan home base was swallowed by absolute darkness, and sensor arrays lost all visuals.
"No! Absolutely impossible!"
Technicians went insane, screaming and weeping with their heads in their hands, unable to accept that the laws of physics were being trampled and rewritten.
Yet tears and disbelief could do nothing to halt reality.
That patch of abyssal darkness was the ultimate expression of π = 0.
Wave equations failed, triggering a causality severing effect; light and electromagnetic waves could no longer propagate through that region.
From the outside, the sector would remain forever pitch-black; from the inside, time stood still due to the absence of periodic oscillation.
A few seconds later, the darkness dissolved.
Not a single atom remained of the three battle moons or their fleets. The entire region was cleared out completely, leaving not even a speck of wreckage behind.
Countless scientists stared with bloodshot, hollow eyes at the cleared sector, the light drained from their vision.
They all understood that the region of space was now impeccably pure—not even fundamental particles existed within it anymore.
π had been rewritten, and everything within its radius had collapsed from a three-dimensional world down into a zero-dimensional void.
A dead silence fell over the battlefield. An incomprehensible curse clogged the minds of all who watched, like frost freezing thought itself.
The cosmos fell silent. Where the laws of nature collapsed, even time lost its meaning.