The Skaven were deep in the plotting-scheming of assassinating the Aeldari who now held the surface above them. Tragically for the vermin, the founding of this new Aeldari nation had been personally sanctioned by the Great Horned Rat, a fact Lucius had absolutely no intention of sharing with his children.
To Lucius, watching the rats get slaughtered was an exquisite form of entertainment. The vermin were infinite, sycophantic, and treacherous; if they lived, they would pray to the Great Horned Rat out of sheer desperation, and if they died, the Great Horned Rat would simply toy with their souls in the Warp. No matter the outcome, it was a total victory for Lucius.
The first three Archons of the Drukhari to swear their undying fealty to Lileath were Gilles, Landuin, and Thierrof. Once merely ambitious rulers within the webway-city of Commorragh, they had now transformed into radiant Aeldari Knights, their forms enveloped in a holy luminescence.
"To think you were telling the truth. Even if I cannot fathom the divine power coursing through you, that righteous demeanor of yours is positively laughable, Landuin of the Black Blade."
Aurelia Malys masked the lower half of her face behind a segmented alloy fan. Flanking her, her exquisitely handsome and submissive courtiers stared in stunned silence at Landuin. This was an Archon of the Kabal of the Black Banner, a man who once trembled in terrified obedience before Lady Malys. Yet now, he stood before her with an unyielding, dignified posture, treating her as an absolute equal. This raw audacity alone commanded immense, begrudging respect from the gathered Aeldari.
Bearing the serene, saintly countenance of a monastic knight, as if he had already realized his grandest dreams and now existed in a state completely detached from mortal desire, Landuin locked eyes with Lady Malys.
"Because I have tasted the ultimate dream in the presence of the Eldest Daughter," Landuin said calmly. "Compared to that divine grace, all the debauchery and sensory excess of Commorragh fades into utter insignificance. Lady Malys... you are a creature of supreme intellect. As a prominent devotee of the Cult of Isha, you cannot fail to comprehend the sheer significance of the Goddess's most cherished daughter. Pledge yourself to the Second Aeldari Empire. Together, we shall reforge our ancient glory."
Lady Malys narrowed her eyes at him. While she had initially chosen to side with the Cult of Isha without hesitation, it was a calculated move; she worshiped the Earth Mother purely to secure a political advantage in her bid to seize absolute dominion over Commorragh. She possessed no genuine religious piety. Like Asdrubael Vect, who had uncharacteristically flipped his stance to become the primary benefactor of the Ynnari, none of these Commorrite tyrants were to be trifled with.
If anyone expected her to meekly surrender the sovereignty of Commorragh to a slip of a girl claiming to be Lileath, they grossly underestimated her. She was a master conspirator who harbored the insane ambition to sit at the same card table as Tzeentch, Cegorach, and the Emperor of Mankind.
However, Lady Malys was far too cunning to voice a blunt refusal. Within the labyrinthine recesses of her mind, a web of machinations was already spinning on how best to exploit this nascent "Second Aeldari Empire."
Her expressions instantly dissolved into a radiant, flawless smile, the very smile that had unwittingly robbed countless souls of their lives. Paired with her shockingly pure, innocent features and her cascading, midnight-black hair, she looked the epitome of virtue.
"Of course, of course~" Lady Malys purred with simulated innocence. "I am merely a fragile soul seeking the sanctuary of Isha's embrace. But I can assure you of one thing... Asdrubael Vect is an absolute heretic to our cause."
Landuin saw right through her duplicity. Since drinking the holy water from Lileath's Grail, which was, in truth, Lileath's own divine blood, he had been entirely rewritten, his treacherous Commorrite soul purged and replaced by the unyielding devotion of a loyal knight.
Landuin stared at her with narrowed eyes, his voice dropping to a cold, warning cadence. "Lady Malys, I suggest you understand this clearly: the era of Aeldari fragmentation is at an end. Whether Kabalite or Craftworlder, every single Aeldari soul will be unified under a single banner. Farewell."
As Landuin turned and walked away without awaiting her leave, a flash of murderous malice crossed Lady Malys's features. No one dared to turn their back on her. The vicious killers standing in her shadow shifted their weight, eagerly awaiting the signal to flay the golden knight alive.
Ultimately, Lady Malys held her hand. The golden luminescence radiating from Landuin gave her a distinct, unsettling sensation, the exact same aura she had felt when she encountered Cegorach. She could instinctively sense that this Avatar of Lileath was no mere projection or proxy; it was something far more terrifying.
"Let him go," she muttered to herself. "Vect is the one who bears the brunt of this storm anyway."
…
Lileath officially renamed the planet Urarchia to Couronne, reshaping the world to her precise whims. She transformed it into a breathtaking Maiden World, a paradise defined by colossal, pristine white and blue architectural marvels surrounded by sprawling gardens.
Naturally, this extensive gentrification infuriated the vermin lurking beneath the crust. The subterranean Skaven under Couronne resolved to fight the Aeldari to the bitter, bloody end.
Whirrrr-vreeee!
A warpstone-tipped drill breached the surface with a deafening, metallic screech, shattering the immaculate white tiles. A few shadowy, gas-masked rat-heads poked out from the freshly dug tunnel. These were the crew of a Skryre Warp-Drill team. Peerless engineers of Clan Skryre, they wore custom warp-lenses that dynamically adjusted focus, allowing them to navigate the pitch-black subterranean strata with perfect clarity.
"YES-YES! The pointy-ear things' tall-houses! The sickening, sweet perfume-scent!"
Within moments, the beautifully manicured plaza began to fracture into a massive web of fissures. The perfectly level flagstones groaned under immense pressure before buckling entirely.
"CHIT-CHIT-CHIT-CHIT-CHIT!"
An endless tide of chittering vermin erupted from the subterranean breach like a brown, foul floodwaters. Emaciated Slave-rats poured into the daylight, driven forward by the cruel whips and rusted blades of Clanrats, followed closely by hulking bio-engineered monstrosities.
They fanned out into the pristine avenues, smashing, looting, and burning everything in sight. In no time at all, the vanguard of the swarm collided with Kabalite Warriors and Guardian squads deployed to contain the breach.
"Oh... Father, forgive me," Lileath murmured from her seat within her magnificent garden pavilion. She instantly sensed the foul, discordant stench of the Skaven, these pathetic worshipers and slaves of the Great Horned Rat.
Her deep azure eyes flashed with intense revulsion. How could such filthy, pathetic beasts deserve the patronage of so magnificent a deity? In her mind, the Great Horned Rat was the true, ultimate manifestation of what Asuryan should have been, not that weakling excuse of a father who had been effortlessly kicked to death by Slaanesh.
"Eldest Daughter... your armies are fully arrayed."
Lileath nodded subtly, her voice sweet and melodic like a maiden's song. "Excellent. Let the war begin. Let Father witness who his most accomplished, devoted child truly is."
The Fire Dragon Exarch standing before her did not comprehend the cryptic nature of her words, but he did not question his living goddess. Bowing low, he murmured his obedience and withdrew.
The Skaven ran rampant through the outer sectors of Couronne's capital city, butchering any civilians who failed to flee in time. However, given the Aeldari tradition where even civilians possessed training as Guardians or Kabalite mercenaries, a coordinated counter-offensive crystallized with terrifying speed.
Splinter fire and monomolecular shuriken streams saturated the air, effortlessly mincing swathes of the rat-swarm into bloody ribbons.
"ROOOAAR!"
With a series of deafening, warp-engineered roars, hulking Rat Ogres and towering Hell Pit Abominations from Clan Moulder crashed into the avenues. Their mutated, titan-sized flesh crushed everything in their path, obliterating the defensive barricades and turning any Clanrats too slow to scatter into red paste beneath their weight.
"Ahahaha! Pointy-ear things, die-die—GAAH!"
The Skaven cowering in the wake of the massive beasts shrieked with sadistic laughter, but their cackling was abruptly cut short as monomolecular shuriken punched through their skulls.
Shadows detached themselves from the surrounding towers and ruined masonry, flowing down into the streets like living ink. Hundreds of jet-black Mandrakes manifested directly within the thick of the swarm, their bale-blades weaving a tapestry of slaughter through the rat ranks.
Simultaneously, the skies above darkened as a massive flotilla of Aeldari aircraft, anti-grav Raiders, and jetbike squadrons descended upon the warzone.
Shuriken cannons and dark matter disintegrators mounted on the lightning-fast skimmers opened fire, unleashing a catastrophic bombardment upon the Clan Moulder beasts, engulfing the entire grid in an inescapable storm of firepower.
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