If he hadn’t seen it with his own optical sensors, Anrakyr the Traveller would never have believed it.
A biological mortal had just defeated the C’tan Shard of the Burning One in single combat.
Even fragmented, the raw cosmic power and reality-bending authority of a Star God fundamentally dictated that it was mathematically impossible for a mortal to overcome it.
But before Anrakyr’s logic cores could even finish processing the sheer absurdity of the fight, the human dropped a bombshell that completely fried his engrams: The human was demanding financial compensation for the destroyed teleportation portal.
Anrakyr hadn’t even asked for his C’tan Shard back yet, and this ape was trying to extort him?!
This was absolute, cosmological insanity!
“You…
must be jesting, correct?” Anrakyr gripped his staff tightly, his synthesized voice grinding out every syllable.
Vane lazily traced the spine of his demonic katana, Enigma [Death’s Will], and shot the Overlord a predatory smirk.
“Who’s joking?
Do you have any idea what that portal was made of?” “Do you know how much time, blood, sweat, and tears I put into grinding for those materials?!” “You unleashed the Burning One!
You failed to keep your pet on its leash, and it completely trashed my Nether Portal!
Are you seriously trying to tell me you shouldn’t pay for the damages?!” A massive, metaphorical black question mark practically hovered over Anrakyr’s metallic skull.
He was a Supreme Overlord of the Necron Dynasties, a being who had conquered the stars millions of years before humanity even figured out fire.
And today, he was being aggressively extorted for property damage by a hairless ape!
“Are you trying to dodge the bill?!” Vane’s voice suddenly spiked in volume.
“I strongly advise you to think this through and don’t even think about intimidating me.” Anrakyr’s optical sensors twitched as he stared at the terrifying, soul-devouring weapon in Vane’s hand.
He forcibly suppressed his rising fury.
“Very well.
Return the Shard of the Burning One to my custody, and then we shall negotiate appropriate compensation.” “Absolutely not.” Vane rejected the offer instantly.
“The Necrons’ credit rating is notoriously garbage.
Who in their right mind would trust you?” The loot is already in my inventory, and you actually think I’m going to hand it back?
Keep dreaming!
“Fine.
Let us discuss the compensation first,” Anrakyr said, mentally rebooting his patience subroutines.
Stay calm.
This human is dangerously anomalous.
If I engage him in direct combat, statistical probability dictates I will suffer catastrophic losses.
“Whatever.
Since we technically just worked together, I won’t rip you off.
Just hand over two thousand and one star systems, and we’ll call it even.” “As for this C’tan Shard?
It’s fragmented, damaged, and frankly not that useful.
But because I’m a generous guy, I’ll appraise its value at exactly half a planet.
That comes off the total debt.” Anrakyr’s ocular receptors flared blinding white.
A short, static-laced burst of synthesized laughter escaped his vocalizer.
Excuse me?!
A single teleportation portal is worth two thousand star systems?!
But a literal C’tan Shard is only worth half a planet?!
He had lived for sixty million years.
He had encountered countless greedy, treacherous races.
But extortion on this sheer, unapologetically absurd scale was completely unprecedented.
“You have absolutely no intention of returning the C’tan Shard, do you?
You are merely fabricating astronomical demands to keep it!” Anrakyr glared at Vane.
“Hey, watch the slander!” Vane warned, his tone dead serious.
“I will absolutely sue you for defamation.” Anrakyr stared at Vane for a solid five seconds, mentally labeling him a complete, irredeemable lunatic, before turning on his heel and marching straight toward his extraction portal.
Trying to reason with this human was a mathematical impossibility.
His logic circuits were simply too bizarre; Anrakyr genuinely feared his cognitive engrams would overheat and fail from sheer frustration.
As for taking it back by force?
He statistically couldn’t win.
Tyranid Hive Tyrants?
Cut down like wheat.
C’tan Shards?
Beaten into submission and shoved into a glowing box.
The human’s arsenal of anomalous weaponry seemed infinite.
Just standing near him made Anrakyr’s necrodermis crawl.
Remaining here would only result in him vomiting coolant from rage.
A tactical retreat was the only logical option.
“Running away from your debts?!
Believe me, I’m going to write a book about this!
Three volumes, nine chapters!
I’ll broadcast it across the entire galaxy!
Everyone will know Anrakyr the Traveller is a deadbeat who refuses to pay his bills!” Hearing Vane’s parting threat, Anrakyr actually stumbled, his metallic foot catching on a piece of rubble before he frantically accelerated his pace and vanished through the portal.
Watching the emerald portal snap shut, Vane shook his head in disappointment.
“Necron Overlords just aren’t what they used to be.
Resorting to dine-and-dash tactics.
Pathetic.” Standing nearby, Gabriel Seth watched the entire exchange in absolute awe.
They always say you can learn a lot from the Forefather, but this?
This is absolute genius!
He secured the loot, successfully extorted an ancient xenos Overlord, and then verbally bullied him so hard he literally ran away!
This is what I call peak tactical diplomacy.
Vane didn’t bother chasing Anrakyr.
He knew he was never actually going to get the star systems, so there was no point wasting time.
Besides, securing the C’tan Shard was an astronomically massive profit no matter how you looked at it.
Right now, getting back to business was the priority.
Steve had already finished installing the void thrusters on the mobile fortress; it was fully prepped for orbital deployment.
However, even with the fortress’s overpowered armaments, a single base couldn’t annihilate an entire Tyranid swarm of this magnitude.
He needed to mass-produce artillery batteries and void warships.
“First things first.
I need to rebuild the Magnifican Prism to secure an infinite energy supply.” Vane used his Linking Book, teleporting back to the mobile fortress.
Utilizing the newly unlocked crafting recipes, he rapidly synthesized the necessary components and handed them off to Steve for final assembly.
While Steve worked, Vane overhauled the fortress’s primary power core, physically integrating the glowing red block containing the C’tan Shard into the energy grid.
During downtime?
It’s a high-yield battery.
During a massive boss fight?
I unbox it and use it as a summonable bruiser.
In this economy, you have to maximize efficiency.
One god, multiple uses.
Squeeze every last drop of surplus value out of it.
Since the Magnifican Prism was a pre-existing modular structure, as long as he crafted the correct components, reassembling it was practically like snapping Lego bricks together.
In just a few days, Steve finished assembling the colossal framework for the new Prism.
Vane used his Nether Portals to seamlessly transport the massive segments into position for final installation.
In record time, a brand-new Void Dome, an entirely upgraded relay array, and a central control core were erected, fully restoring the Cryptus System’s energy grid.
Anrakyr the Traveller, who had been preparing to cut his losses and permanently evacuate the sector, immediately detected the massive energy spike.
When his augur arrays picked up the brand-new Void Domes and relay nodes, he instantly realized what the human had done.
What kind of cosmic aberration is this human Forefather?!
Those primitive, oil-leaking red-robed mechanics spent centuries failing to reverse-engineer basic Gauss weaponry!
Yet this single human casually replicated the Mephrit Dynasty’s Magnifican Prism, and built it at a speed that completely defies the laws of physics!
If I gave him another week, he’d probably pave the entire Cryptus System with them!
Anrakyr immediately opened a secure quantum-communication channel, dialing Zarathusa, the Overlord of the Mephrit Dynasty.
When Zarathusa heard the report, he literally shrieked, leaping out of his command throne.
“WHAT DO YOU MEAN HE HAND-CRAFTED A MAGNIFICAN PRISM?!” “I assure you, it is true,” Anrakyr nodded grimly.
“The human literally built one from scratch.” “That is mathematically impossible!” Zarathusa roared.
“Even with our fully awakened tomb complexes, rebuilding a Magnifican Prism would take us decades!” “How could a primitive ape possibly construct a functional Prism in a matter of days?!” “I find it equally illogical, but the evidence is undeniable.” Anrakyr transmitted the visual data his spy-scarabs had captured.
The feeds clearly showed the brand-new Void Domes and pristine relay arrays completely replacing the old, ruined Imperial infrastructure.
A horde of red-robed tech-priests, practically vibrating with excitement and occasionally leaking sacred oils in their ecstasy, were currently running final diagnostics.
Within hours, the array would be fully operational, channeling the raw power of the new Magnifican Prism to energize the entire human-held sector.
“Damnation!
This is blatant theft!
The ancestor of those hairless apes has stolen the sacred technological legacy of the Mephrit Dynasty!” Zarathusa was absolutely furious.
He had long considered the Cryptus System to be the exclusive property of his dynasty.
He had fully anticipated that the Tyranid invasion would force the humans to completely evacuate the sector, which was the only reason he hadn’t ordered a preemptive extermination campaign against them.
They were going to leave anyway, so why waste military resources slaughtering them?
But now?
The humans had completely rebuilt the Magnifican Prism and restored the energy grid.
That sent one very clear, very unacceptable message: They had absolutely no intention of leaving.
If these humans had simply retreated with whatever shredded dignity they had left, it would have been mutually beneficial.
But now?
They refuse to leave, and they’ve blatantly stolen the Mephrit Dynasty’s proprietary technology!
Do not blame me for what happens next!