Chapter 186: Protoss: I Have Two Lives
The warping from the Pylon did not stop; more Protoss forces were on their way.
Saram watched in heartache as his comrades died. Every Eldar was precious, and now their bodies were being torn apart by the psi-blades of these unknown beings, their pure blood flowing upon the sacred Craftworld.
"No... what are you doing! Kholor has never been an enemy to a race like yours!"
What horrified him most was that he personally witnessed Artanis, after slaughtering his kin, pick up the soul stones that protected their souls. When the soul stones were in Artanis's hands, he saw them visibly crack and shatter. The souls of his people were wailing, their souls were disappearing!
As the Eldar soul within the stone was devoured, the blood-red gem dimmed completely. And back on Aiur, another Protoss appeared.
Artanis looked at Saram and the other Eldar artisans. The Templar had already surrounded them. The Probe, as if it had found its master, came to Artanis's side. On Artanis's command, the Probe began to construct several Photon Cannons to consolidate their defenses.
The Gateways ceaselessly warped in squad after squad of Protoss to this world. The Templar who subsequently arrived on Kholor also began to form into squads. They began to thoroughly invade the Craftworld. The Protoss took advantage of the fact that the Eldar had not yet reacted to cause as much destruction and chaos as possible, to build up a greater advantage for the forces that would follow.
Artanis walked up to Saram. Lucan had once told him that the most important thing in the entire Craftworld was its Infinity Circuit! Only by occupying or destroying the Infinity Circuit could they truly be said to have conquered the entire Craftworld and even bring the all-important Spear of Adun into this world. And the countless Eldar souls contained within the Infinity Circuit could increase the current number of Protoss several times over.
"Tell me! Where is the Infinity Circuit!"
Artanis's voice echoed in Saram's ears. But even though Saram was terrified, his body even beginning to tremble, he did not speak. Every Craftworld Eldar knew what the Infinity Circuit represented. The souls of their relatives were preserved there, and to protect the Infinity Circuit was to protect themselves. Physical death was not the most terrible thing for the Eldar; to have one's soul completely annihilated or taken by Slaanesh was the most painful fate.
"You... what are you things? Why are you invading our Craftworld!"
"It was you who started the war, Eldar!"
Saram's eyes widened. If such a purely psionic race existed, how could he not know of them? No matter how he searched his memories, he could not find any existence of this "Protoss."
"How is that possible! We have never even seen your race! The archives of Kholor have never recorded your existence! How could we have started a war!"
Looking at Saram's expression, Artanis knew it was the same old trick of those in power. These civilians had no idea about the decisions of their superiors. But when a war began, was there any distinction between civilians and soldiers? When the Zerg attacked Aiur, did they spare the civilians? Not to mention the Zerg, in the golden age of the Protoss, their Golden Armada had glassed its fair share of planets. And besides soldiers, those planets also had countless civilians.
StarCraft, Warhammer, it was all the same. The number of xenos species exterminated by the Imperium of Man since its founding was countless. All of it was done in the interest of one's own race.
When Artanis walked out of the laboratory again, there was not a single living Eldar to be found inside.
With the sudden appearance of the Protoss, Craftworld Kholor was instantly thrown into turmoil. It had been an unknown number of years since the last invasion of the Craftworld. In the past, the defenses of the Craftworld were all geared towards threats from the void and from the outside. The Webway and the Farseers' divination were enough for them to avoid most dangers. But a threat coming directly from within, without any warning, had caught the Craftworld Eldar completely off guard.
"Farseer Elara! The Craftworld has been invaded!"
"What! What happened? How did they get in? Have there been any reports of an invasion?"
"None! There are no enemies in the nearby star systems. The system we are in was scouted long ago. There isn't even any life here!"
Elara calmed herself and began to sense. At this moment, a large number of powerful psychic reactions had appeared within the Craftworld. For a moment, she even thought that daemons had found an entrance in the Webway and had entered Kholor through the Craftworld's Webway nexus.
The other Farseers in the Seer Council looked at the images transmitted from the location of the attack. The appearance of the Templar was extremely similar to that of the Probe and the Pylon. And in the laboratory where the Pylon was being studied, all the Eldar artisans and warriors had lost contact. From the direction the Protoss had appeared, the Farseers knew they had come from there.
"Summon all the Guardians! No matter how they appeared here, we must protect our home! Send Guardians to protect the Infinity Circuit! Nothing must happen to the Infinity Circuit!"
Elara began to issue commands. Everything that was happening pointed to the Pylon she had brought back. The only external object Kholor had brought back in this time was that Pylon.
All the Eldar military forces within the Craftworld began to assemble. The war-constructs made of wraithbone were activated. The invasion alarm had not sounded in Craftworld Kholor for over a thousand years. Kholor, which practiced isolationism, had always avoided appearing in the eyes of other intelligent races.
But Kholor's reclusiveness did not mean their warriors were unskilled in combat. Elara had been using proxies for years to clear obstacles for Kholor. Kholor's warriors would also from time to time leave the Craftworld to fight. And the philosophy of the Kholor Eldar warriors had always been to use offense as defense, to eliminate the enemy before they could launch an attack.
After all, this was the Eldar's home turf. When the Eldar reacted, the advantage in numbers and firepower temporarily suppressed the Protoss offensive. The Eldar's Rangers, Striking Scorpions, Howling Banshees, Warp Spiders, and warriors from various other Paths clashed with the Templar in different parts of the Craftworld.
Ordinary Eldar warriors were not a great threat to the Templar. The complex terrain of the Craftworld provided the Templar with opportunities for close combat. But the cannon fire from vehicles like the Fire Prism was not something the Protoss's personal shields could withstand. The Craftworld Eldar, having inherited the legacy of the former Eldar Empire, showed their true combat strength once they reacted. The sick camel was still bigger than a horse.
The number of Gateways limited the speed of the Protoss reinforcements. Without subsequent forces to reinforce them, even if Artanis himself was strong enough, he could not hold back the entire enemy of the Craftworld. The battle line was rapidly being pushed back toward the Pylon. The Eldar's goal was also to destroy the crystal and cut off the invaders' subsequent support.
But whenever the Eldar managed to finish off a Templar, they found that the Protoss would instantly disappear from Kholor in a beam of light. The near-death Protoss, with the help of the crystal array device on their armor, would instantly teleport back to Aiur. This device allowed a critically wounded Protoss to immediately teleport back to a safe location. This was equivalent to giving the Protoss two lives.
Unfortunately, the physical injuries could not be healed. These heavily wounded Protoss began to be placed into the mechanical constructs of the Protoss, just like the Wraith-constructs of the Eldar.
Artanis watched with a heavy heart as his kin were critically wounded and teleported away. Although they had not completely died, once they entered a construct, they would never have a chance to come out again. But for the sake of the Protoss, these wounded warriors were willing to make this sacrifice.
As the constructs were activated, the heavy ground units of the Protoss began to enter the field.
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As promised, here's your well-deserved bonus chapter for the week.
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