Before the two could recover from their shock, a sharp sound of something piercing the air suddenly tore through the silence.
Dozens of silver-blue streams of light shot from the secret chamber passage, accurately nailing into the gaps of the Thousand Sons warriors’ power armor.
Three warriors did not even have time to let out a cry of agony before they fell stiffly to the ground; their power armor was like thin paper under these tricky attacks.
“Enemy attack!”
Levi roared, and a gold and purple psychic barrier instantly deployed, shielding the remaining people behind him.
He looked up, only to see dozens of bizarre xenos clad in silver-white bone armor quietly landing on the rocks on both sides of the passage.
Their figures were slender and elongated, their movements as light as phantoms in the forest.
In their hands, they held uniquely shaped short guns, the muzzles flickering with a cold, eerie blue light.
Levi’s brows furrowed tightly as he stared fixedly at these uninvited guests.
They possessed near-perfect human silhouettes; their armor was carved with complex and elegant patterns, and their entire bodies were wreathed in faint, pure psychic fluctuations.
He suspected these were Eldar.
Only they could easily defeat Thousand Sons warriors, and only they would dress so exquisitely and gorgeously.
Following that, the clustered xenos slowly parted, and a female xeno dressed in a moon-white robe stepped out.
She wore a crown inlaid with sapphires on her head and held a long staff wreathed in eerie blue flame.
Her pale golden eyes were filled with unconcealed contempt.
“Filthy lesser race, get out of this sanctuary immediately,” her voice was crisp but carried a biting chill.
“The Soul Restoration Array is a holy relic of our Eldar, not something you can lay your hands on.”
“It’s the Eldar.” Ahriman’s voice sank, a trace of solemnity flashing in his eyes.
“The former overlords of the galaxy, mastering the most ancient psychic technology.
Before finding our Primarch, we fought against them.
These aeldari are cunning and powerful and never appear in places without value.”
He gripped his staff tightly, his voice trembling with excitement.
“Even they do not hesitate to cross the sea of stars to snatch this array…
it really can resurrect the dead!”
“Ignorance,” the female Eldar sneered.
With a wave of her long staff, countless eerie blue psychic arrows shot forward like a torrential rain.
The battle erupted instantly.
The speed of these Eldar was astonishingly fast.
They nimbly leaped and shuttled among the rock walls of the secret chamber, and the shuriken fired from their short guns could easily penetrate the weak points of the power armor.
But the Thousand Sons warriors’ counterattack was equally fierce.
Eerie blue biological lightning and crimson fireballs wreaked havoc in the passage.
Eldar were constantly hit, retreating into the shadows after suffering severe injuries.
Levi abruptly raised the power axe in his hand to cleave apart an Eldar Striking Scorpion that pounced near him and then abruptly smashed a psychic fireball into the ground.
The shockwave from the explosion of the psychic fireball, bolstered by the Abyssal Resonance Method, knocked three Eldar warriors back repeatedly.
Yet the doubts in his heart grew ever larger—
It was too punctual.
Less than ten minutes after they had discovered the array, these Eldar accurately found their way to this hidden underground space.
“Ahriman, protect the array!” Levi suddenly shouted.
From the corner of his eye, he caught sight of two Eldar circling to the back of the array.
Blinding psychic spheres of light were condensing in their hands, their target terrifyingly clear.
“Don’t touch it!”
Ahriman charged over like an enraged lion, purple psychic lightning dancing wildly on his force staff.
His psychic energy had already touched fragments of the future, terrifyingly clear, telling him he had to give it his all; otherwise, this array would inevitably shatter in an instant.
Raising his hand, he burned one Eldar to ashes with a bolt of purple lightning, and another Eldar also died under his furious attack.
But fate made a fool of people.
The psychic sphere of light fired by that Eldar just before dying smashed ruthlessly into the core of the array.
Boom——!
A violent explosion swept through the entire underground space.
Under the impact, the golden runes shattered inch by inch.
The originally flowing, gentle golden light instantly extinguished, leaving only a patch of scorched black cracks and scattered rubble on the ground.
“No…”
Ahriman’s voice stopped abruptly.
He froze in place, watching helplessly as the last speck of golden light dissipated in the air.
The next second, he threw himself onto the scorched black ground, frantically digging at the rubble and dust with both hands, as if wanting to dig something out of the ruins.
“Mission accomplished.
Retreat.”
The female Eldar cast a cold glance at the broken Ahriman and snapped her fingers.
The remaining Eldar immediately turned into streaks of silver-blue light, darting into the entrance of the secret passage and disappearing.
Coming without a shadow and leaving without a trace, leaving behind only corpses and chaos.
The underground space fell into a deathly silence.
Only the rustling sound of Ahriman digging at the rubble echoed.
His back faced everyone, his shoulders trembling slightly, and no one could clearly see his expression.
Levi walked to his side and gently patted his back.
We already scanned most of the runic structure just now.
Let’s go back and piece it together slowly; perhaps we can restore it.”
He thought Ahriman had broken down because his hope had been shattered, and his heart also felt somewhat heavy.
He did not notice that Ahriman’s hand, which was digging at the rubble, suddenly paused.
His fingertips swiftly picked up a piece of rubble the size of a fingernail, engraved with a rune, and quietly stuffed it into a hidden compartment on the wrist of his power armor.
“I’m fine.”
After quite a while, Ahriman slowly stood up and patted the dust off his body.
He put his helmet back on.
His voice had already returned to its past cold calmness, as if the person who had lost his composure just now was only an illusion.
Levi frowned, feeling that something was slightly wrong, but a more urgent question immediately occupied his thoughts.
“Wait, how could these Eldar arrive so quickly?” He walked to the entrance of the passage, looking toward the dense forest where the Eldar had disappeared, and muttered to himself in a low voice, “Varnum II is a remote border planet, not on any known warp routes at all.
Unless…
there is their secret passage here.”
He suddenly remembered the Webway system frequently used by the Eldar, spread throughout the galaxy.
The Webway was an ancient passage capable of allowing jumps between star systems.
It not only avoided the chaotic pollution of the Warp but could also evade detection from all conventional technology.
Aside from the Eldar and an extremely small number of existences who knew ancient secrets, absolutely no one could find these pathways hidden within the crevices of the real universe.
If there truly was a Webway entrance here, it meant these Eldar could make a comeback at any time or even directly launch a surprise attack on the Thousand Sons fleet anchored in orbit.
“You take the warriors back to the castle first, tally the casualties, and reinforce the defenses.”
Levi immediately made a decision.
He tightened his grip on the power axe in his hand.
“I will go after them and see if I can find the way they came here.
If we don’t root out this hidden danger, we will never have peace on this planet.”
“Alright.” Ahriman nodded, his voice indistinguishable from normal.
“Be careful yourself.
If you can’t beat them, retreat.
Don’t fight head-on.”
Without hesitation, Levi leaped out of the passage, turning into a gold and purple afterimage, and chased deep into the dense forest.
His psychic perception spread out with full force, firmly locking onto the faint psychic traces lingering in the air, single-mindedly intent on finding that dangerous Webway entrance.
Ahriman watched Levi’s figure disappear and slowly raised his wrist.
Under the shadow of his helmet, his gaze fell on the position of the hidden compartment.
His eyes were complex beyond words—containing pain, longing, and a trace of desperate resolve.
Thaniel_a_goodchild.