When the last Black Legionnaire fell, the space finally fell silent.
The Warden began to patrol aimlessly, sniffing for its next target.
Zeke and Cawl remained perfectly still. After 60 seconds of failing to locate a target, the Warden burrowed into the blocks beneath its feet and vanished.
Then Zeke used wool to seal off the Sculk Shrieker to prevent another Warden from spawning.
Since the Shrieker couldn't be mined directly without breaking it, Zeke decided to carve out the entire chunk of land it sat on and transport the whole thing.
He discussed it with Cawl, confirming the feasibility of the plan.
Cawl then turned his full attention to studying the surrounding Blackstone; after all, that was his original purpose for coming here.
"Let me see the secrets hidden beneath the Blackstone." Cawl stared intently at the Blackstone spire before him.
Suddenly, a yellow dot—a neutral unit—appeared on Zeke's minimap. Zeke looked back to see Trazyn walking out of the darkness.
Zeke couldn't be sure how long he had been watching. Perhaps he had been there since the Warden was first summoned.
"Are you surprised that I appeared here?"
"Not in the slightest," Zeke replied.
"Anyway, I found that place you were looking for." Trazyn held up an Eye of Ender. "The first one shattered but everything is progressing very smoothly."
Zeke didn't know if Trazyn was just lucky or if Necron technology was truly advanced enough to locate an End Portal after only one Eye of Ender had shattered.
"You deceived me. To go in there, I still need some keys, correct?" Trazyn pinched the Eye of Ender between his fingers.
"So, where did you find the End Portal?"
"A planet touched by the tendrils of the Great Devourer. I even wasted a clone for it."
The Great Devourer... Tyranids. It seemed the trip to the End was going to be more difficult than expected.
Zeke remembered the Genestealers he had encountered earlier; they were the vanguard of the Great Devourer.
Zeke turned back around. Cawl was still studying the Blackstone spire.
"Incredible. All these Blackstone spires are connected. What is the medium of their connection? Some form of quantum entanglement?" Cawl exclaimed.
"Yes, that is basically correct."
"Excellent. If that is roughly correct, then..." Cawl stopped and turned around. "Zeke, you understand Blackstone too? You never told me that."
It wasn't Zeke who answered Cawl's question, but a new figure.
When he saw Trazyn, Cawl froze.
His combat protocols re-engaged, and target reticles flashed violently in his vision.
"Forgive me, Archmagos. I had no intention of interrupting you. I am Trazyn the Infinite, and I am here for the Blackstone. I mean no harm—at least to you. If you don't believe me, you can ask the huma-."
"Abomination! Get away from it, Zeke!" Cawl roared interrupting Trazyn.
Zeke took a step away from Trazyn.
"Why is the start always like this?" Trazyn sighed. "It seems I have to waste my breath again."
Regardless, things eventually moved in a positive direction.
After some 'friendly exchange' between Cawl and Trazyn, and following Zeke's mediation, they finally lowered their weapons and spoke openly.
Trazyn understood Blackstone, and Cawl was desperate to understand it; they spoke a common language of science.
Cawl and Trazyn argued. Cawl cursed Trazyn, calling him a Space Ape.
Trazyn, on the other hand, felt that since Cawl had lived less than ten thousand years, such youthful arrogance was understandable, and he wouldn't lower himself to bicker with a child.
With Trazyn's help, the progress of the Blackstone research skyrocketed.
–
Cawl called Creed via a vox-caster.
"We have made progress, Castellan. We have successfully brought a control node online and connected the two nearest pylons."
"Two pylons? Only two?"
"Once the initial work is complete, we should be able to bring more pylons online."
Creed agreed, then asked Cawl to hand the vox-caster to Zeke.
"Zeke, I think we need to act immediately."
Although he couldn't see Creed's face, Zeke could feel the Castellan's seriousness through his tone.
"The Phalanx of the Imperial Fists is in Cadian orbit. They traveled via the Warp. There was no news at all; I only found out three minutes ago. This is a golden opportunity, we have another ally."
It's actually two, Zeke thought. There's also a Legion of the Damned down below.
The Phalanx had come from Terra. While traveling through the Warp, they happened to see Cadia engulfed in the fires of war and chose to intervene.
Zeke then hung up the vox-caster and built a Nether Portal, connecting it to the vicinity of the camp.
He also sent a construction team from the camp in to separate the ground where the Sculk Shrieker sat.
The Necron architecture exceeded the difficulty of normal construction, and it was only with Trazyn's help that they successfully separated it.
Encased in a soundproof glass cover, it was transported back to the camp.
Back at the camp, Trazyn also sent someone to deliver two materials Zeke was missing: a Melon and a Turtle Scute.
Opening the brewing stand, Zeke used the Turtle Scute to craft a Turtle Shell, then brewed a strengthened Potion of the Turtle Master, which provided Resistance IV and Slowness V.
He also brewed Healing Potions and Harming Potions.
Except for a few extremely niche ones, Zeke had basically collected all the vanilla potions.
Next was smithing. Zeke called for the Weaponsmith and checked the stats of the armor and weapons made from Blackstone.
They had the same stats as Netherite, but with an added trait: Warp Suppression. It could sever the connection between surrounding enemies and the Warp.
This move didn't distinguish between friend and foe, so it might have side effects in a crowd.
For instance, if fighting alongside the Space Wolves, rashly cutting off the Warp might cause those Astartes to degenerate into Wulfen.
Zeke made a set, applied the highest level enchantments, and stored it in his inventory as a backup.
"Also, Mr. Zeke," the Weaponsmith interjected.
"During the time you gave me the Tinkers' Manual, I successfully replicated some of the alloys listed in it using materials we had here."
"Manyullyn," the Weaponsmith said.
Few could pronounce the name of this material correctly; it was a material capable of cutting through stars.
Manyullyn was a high tier material in Tinkers' Construct with incredible durability, handle modifier, base attack value.
Weapons made from it possessed the [Insatiable] trait, capable of stacking bonus damage after hitting enemies.
While Armor possessed the [Kinetic] attribute, where the armor reflects a portion of the damage back to the attacker.
Zeke also remembered that Manyullyn was an alloy of Cobalt and Ardite. The former could still be found in Warhammer, but the latter was extremely difficult to locate.
The Weaponsmith flipped through the Tinkers' Manual. "It is made by smelting Cobalt and Ardite. The ratio was hard to find, but fortunately, we have the Adeptus Mechanicus. With their help we finally figured out the ratio after some time. However, when I attempted to craft a weapon using Manyullyn metal, a major problem occurred. My smelting technique wasn't up to par." The Weaponsmith shook his head.
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Thanks for the powerstones everyone we reached top 50 (Current rank - 44)
Next Goal: 200 Powerstones