Chapter 345: The Road to Expedition: The Web Alliance
Some people say that the physical universe and the subspace are like two sides of a mirror, one side is reality, and the other side is broken adversity. In the endless storm of the subspace, the opposite reflections of the real world are torn apart in it, one positive and one negative, just like light and shadow. Then, there is another place, which is just between the mirror of reality and nothingness, that is here.
The Webway, when the galaxy was just born in its embryonic era, when accompanied by the first cry of civilization, the ancient saints, the founders, pioneers and guides of countless lives between the thousands of galaxies, created the Webway.
This is a highway between the real universe and the subspace storm, a perfect creation that perfectly combines all the advantages of the physical and the nothingness. The ancient saints use it to travel around the galaxy, sow life and create civilization. This ultimate perfect creation is eternal and indestructible. Even if the ancient saints left the galaxy after the tragic battle of heaven, his eldest son, the Eldar, inherited the Webway, they still use it to create and connect every corner of their huge galactic empire.
No one thought that the webway would be destroyed one day. The Eldar believed that it was eternal and the most precious property they had. No alien race could touch it. So it was precisely because of this that the arrogant Eldar refused and ignored one point, a crucial point.
Those civilizations, those civilizations that seemed meaningless, small and insignificant in the eyes of the Eldar, would one day catch up with this powerful but ancient and stagnant Eldar Empire, perhaps through a technological explosion, perhaps after a long period of accumulation and research, but one day, they would catch up.
The Eldar ignored this point, and their arrogance brought tragic consequences, from a planet on the edge of the Milky Way called Od.Treni by the Eldar, a "monkey civilization" born on a planet next to the sun. At least the Eldar called them so contemptuously, but in other civilizations and their own names, they called themselves humans.
When the human-eldar who laid the foundation for the future of the Milky Way for thousands of years began, the Eldar did not believe, nor were they willing to believe, that their eternal empire would be defeated by a group of monkeys flying into the universe. They owned the webway, and as long as the webway existed, the Eldar Empire was invincible, and no one could destroy it.
But the final result was shocking. The proud and ancient Eldar Empire was defeated by the rising humans. The human civilization, known as the barbarians, successfully found a way to destroy the webway. Before the Iron Rain War, countless webways and the artificial planets in them were destroyed. The webways that once connected different corners of the empire collapsed in one raid after another.
Only then did the Eldar realize that the technology and civilization they were proud of were completely built on the basis of the Webway. When the Webway was destroyed, they suddenly realized that their arrogance for thousands of years had brought an end. No matter what, the Eldar could not rebuild the Webway, or even understand it. So when the Great Fall came, the Eldar, who had nowhere to escape, finally ushered in their own destruction like many civilizations they had despised.
Nowadays, only some Eldar branches that are lingering on are hiding in various parts of the Milky Way, or they have cut off all emotional connections in order to protect themselves, or they hide in the Webway and wipe out psychic power, which is the pride that their race once prided themselves on, and use cruelty and torture to anesthetize themselves. Some have completely given up all civilization success and hid on ancient planets in the hope that they can live longer.
But no matter what, the Eldar have forgotten their former pride, whether it is scientific or magical. They are like the remnants of a huge empire that collapsed and survived on its ruins. In the struggle for survival, they have forgotten everything they once had.
Ironically, humans, who were regarded as monkeys by the Eldar, should be called the heirs of the Eldar civilization. In order to defeat the Eldar, humans learned and understood many things from the Eldar, including their technology, civilization and "magic".
When the Eldar Empire collapsed, humans became the heirs of the ancient saints. With the Eldar technology they learned and studied in the war, the booming human civilization should have ushered in its own heyday, replacing the Eldar as the master of the galaxy.
But the final result was not so. At the end of the Golden Age, humans and this enemy who had loved and killed each other for decades, walked into their own end together. With the decline of the Eldar and humans, those ancient technologies were almost completely forgotten. However, this was not the case. The man called the Emperor left behind all the research results on the Golden Age, especially the Webway technology.
Humans know more about the Webway. In order to defeat the Eldar, they humbly studied and understood the technology and principles of the Webway. Humans can use it to destroy the Webway, or they can use it to create a new Webway, a new Webway that is completely independent of the Eldar, the Warp and all material existence, a Webway that belongs only to humans.
The Emperor did exactly that. When the Great Crusade was advancing, he took advantage of the Golden Age, the analysis of the Eldar technology by humans and the success of the Webway research, and built a new Webway. He hoped that the Webway would become the key to a new era and a way to save the suffering of the Warp Chaos.
But in the end, the Webway plan did not succeed. During the Horus Heresy, Magnus broke the barrier of the Webway. When countless Chaos poured into the Webway from the hole, the Emperor was forced to sit on the throne to seal the Webway gate to prevent the influx of demons into the physical universe. From that moment on, this plan that was supposed to bring the dawn of mankind failed.
Today, the last inheritor of the Webway and all ancient technologies still sits on the throne, and the one who caused all the disasters is standing in a world as broken as the Emperor's Webway, staring at the same losses he caused back then.
Magnus stood on the broken ground, looking up at the broken sky above his head. The sky that flashed with countless strange lights was like a broken mirror, and every piece of glass was flying in the air, floating and flashing its own light.
The red Cyclops looked at the broken ground suspended under his feet. The broken land floated in the void, and around him were broken land and ground everywhere. All the broken things floated in the air, and through countless refractions on its mirror surface, the ghostly light was projected everywhere around, creating a place like a distorted dream.
Magnus raised one hand, gathering his power in his hand, trying to draw power from the realm of chaos to open a path, a passage to leave here, but he failed. The power of chaos seemed to be isolated outside this broken world.
The one-eyed Magnus looked up at the Webway Barrier that seemed far away in the sky, but close at hand. He squeezed his hands against his chest, and a psychic entity with swirling twisted smoke appeared in his hand. Magnus pushed it towards the wall in front of him with a backhand palm.
The constantly changing swirling smoke rushed towards the Webway Barrier, but the moment its storm-like front end hit the wall, it was instantly crashed and dissipated. Magnus's attack was resolved in the blink of an eye, and the Webway Barrier did not show any damage at all, still intact and flashing a strange light.
"You can't break the original webway barrier created by the Old Ones."
A voice suddenly came from the twisting void. Magnus turned his head and saw a figure coming out of the mist of ghostly light. His tall armored body walked slowly on the broken ground of the webway.
The man jumped from a piece of broken ground suspended on one side of the ground where Magnus was. He landed a few steps away from Magnus. The huge sound of footsteps echoed throughout the webway barrier. Magnus looked at him with his red-gold eye, looking at the man who walked out of the thin mist of light.
He used his huge power claws to push away the mist. He looked around and walked leisurely. "This thing is the original one. It is much stronger than the copycat webway made by the Emperor. Your Tzeentch will have to use a lot of weird methods to get in."
"Vito, you are not dead yet?" Magnus whispered to the man who was coming. He smiled and waved his finger at his forehead. "How could I, such a handsome and awesome person, die in such a boring place? I must be surrounded by beautiful girls when I die."
Vito boasted to himself, and seemed not to notice the psychic beam in Magnus's hand. He shot the light at Vito with a backhand palm, but it turned out that Vito did notice it.
When the beam of light came, Vito drew out the Phoenix Sword and cut it off without even looking at the light ball. The broken light ball broke into countless light particles and flew past his ear. Vito looked at Magnus helplessly in the light.
"Really? You still want to fight me here?"
"Why not? If I can kill you here, your soul will definitely satisfy Tzeentch, and even the other three gods." Magnus said, and a large ball of blue smoke appeared in his hands. The thick fog with tiny blue lightning filled him and rose up around the tall giant.
Vito smiled, and that smile was full of sarcasm. He pointed at the barrier of the webway with the Phoenix Sword in his hand, "If you kill me, how can you take my soul to your boss? Do you know how to get out?"
After Magnus was stunned for a moment, he frowned at Vito in front of him, "Listen to you, you really want to know how to get out, if you are not lying to delay time for yourself."
"Please pay attention, this is the webway, is there a concept of time? And besides, do I need it? Whether you can beat me is still a question." Vito smiled sarcastically and carried the Phoenix Sword on his shoulder. Magnus frowned suddenly as if he was irritated, and the blue smoke around him all filled up and wrapped around his arms.
Magnus clenched his fists, and all the smoke quickly gathered in his hands. Two huge fog bodies immediately floated above his palms, and countless psychic lightning exploded in them like a thunderstorm.
"If you want to try, I'd be happy to."
Vito waved his hand at the guy in front of him, he looked around and smiled, "Here? Forget it, if you want to fight, find a better place. When we get out, if you still want to fight, I'll fight with you again."
"You mean, you know how to leave here?" Magnus said, the blue lightning smoke in his hand still did not disappear, he still held it in his hand, as if he was ready to fight at any time.
Vito in front of him didn't seem to look at the thing at all. He walked to the edge of the broken ground, stood on the boundary that was broken into irregular sections and looked at the void below. In the endless nothingness that could not be seen at a glance, many fragments of the webway floated. They were like the wreckage of a ship floating in the deep sea, floating around and colliding with each other in a powerless state.
"I have lived for 50,000 years after all. Why do you always forget that I also understand what the Emperor understands?" Vito smiled and slowly inserted the Phoenix Sword into the scabbard. When the burning blade slowly sank into the mouth of the scabbard with a clatter, Vito pursed his lips and muttered softly.
"Well, maybe not as well as he does, but still understand! No one knows the webway better than me!" Vito said, and after completely inserting the Phoenix Sword into the golden scabbard, he raised one hand, his fingers flicked in the air, and with the golden light in his eyes, all the webway fragments floating in the void below flew up.
Under the pull of Vito's fingers, all the fragments of different shapes and sizes rose up from the endless flashing void. Vito looked at the countless fragments rising in front of him. He held his chin in thought for a moment, then gently grabbed with his raised fingers, and all the fragments flew up quickly.
Magnus looked at the rapidly moving fragments. They spread out quickly, and then quickly closed together in mid-air to form many glowing strips. All the fragments quickly closed in the center and gathered into a ring under the waving of Vito's fingers.
"Are you going to... open a webway gate to leave here?" Magnus asked in surprise, while Vito smiled bitterly and shook his head slightly, "I was thinking about it. The speed of time in this damn place is completely different from that in the outside world. God knows how long we have been here, and I am in a hurry to go back and date my girl."
"But, unfortunately, no, I can't directly build a webway to take us away. At most, I can make a short-distance portal in the webway to at least let us leave this shattered hell."
Vito continued to wave his fingers quickly, and the entire ring was formed quickly with his swinging. The broken debris gathered in front of Vito to form a huge rotating circular gate. Seeing that the gate was completed, Vito hung his head back and looked at Magnus from an inverted perspective.
"Okay, I've done it here, but I need to support the structure of the portal, and I can't inject enough psychic energy to open it, so it's your turn."
"Me?"
"Yeah, you want to leave here too, don't you? Then I think we can temporarily stop fighting and talk about it after we get out, okay?" Vito said with his bright smile. Magnus frowned slightly at the smile. He looked at the portal and then looked back at Vito.
"Aren't you afraid that I will start the gate and crawl in, then kick you out and leave you here?"
"Well, it's a problem, but I choose to believe you."
"Why?"
"Do we have any other choice besides cooperation? So don't be stubborn, let's go out and talk about it. Two bets, this broken door makes my hands sore."
Vito turned back and turned his back to Magnus, as if he was really not worried that Magnus would be hit from behind. Magnus looked at the blue gas ball in his hand, and he looked up at Vito again, and the red-gold eyes lit up instantly.
The blue lightning gas ball whizzed towards Vito's back and hit his head. The roaring thunder shortened the distance in a very short time. Vito could hear the thunder and feel a chill on the back of his neck, but he didn't even turn his head. The whistling blue electric ball shot to the back of Vito's head.
But just when it was about to hit Vito, the air mass suddenly hit his ear, and the whistling lightning almost flew past his ear. The tiny blue arc could even jump to Vito's earlobe, and the numbness of electric shock spread all over his body.
But at the moment when the paralysis in the brain was transmitted, the blue lightning air mass suddenly hit the center of the portal in front of Vito, and the blue air mass instantly exploded like a water ball hitting the wall. Similarly, due to inertia, a large amount of "water" splashed forward on the entire plane.
On the invisible portal plane, blue smoke instantly spread and swept around, and the gas quickly spread around like water to cover the entire surface. The blue lightning mixed in the blue gas and kept jumping, but soon, the entire surface of the portal was completely swallowed up.
The blue storm clouds kept rolling in the broken door ring, and then with Vito's finger gently pulling, all the fragments glowed at the same time, and the golden light shone into the central cloud. In the blink of an eye, the entire cloud changed color like a piece of cloth thrown into a dye vat.
The blue cloud quickly turned golden from the edges, and the gold quickly advanced along its surface, and then merged into a group in the center of the cloud, and the entire blue cloud completely turned golden.
Magnus walked forward, he looked at the golden rolling cloud, it was like a golden wave, dancing with the breeze in the center of the ring formed by the fragments, the cloud lost its previous murderous aura, and suddenly became peaceful and reassuring.
"Well done, I knew you also studied the magic of the Eldar. Okay, let's go in." Vito said, gently hitting Magnus' arm with his fist. The latter rubbed his arm and frowned slightly as he looked at the golden ocean portal in front of him.
"Do you know where this portal will take us?"
"I don't know at all."
Vito put his hands on his waist and said righteously, with a smile on his face without the corresponding expression that should have appeared when he answered that broken answer. Magnus looked at him coldly on the side.
"You mean, you don't know what the thing behind this is? And then you want me to jump in with you?" "Yes, this way there will be a surprise. Don't be polite. I'll go first!"
Vito said and laughed and jumped into the gate at once. Magnus wanted to say something, but Vito had already jumped in. He stood outside the door and watched Vito sink into the golden ocean.
Magnus looked at the gate in silence for a long time, and then sighed helplessly. He didn't have much choice, right? In addition to following Vito on the adventure, Magnus could only sigh and jump in. His legs were the first to sink into the golden ocean, and his face quickly rushed to the sea surface as it jumped.
Magnus suddenly recalled some memories. During the Great Crusade, before Horus launched the rebellion, Vito would also take them on adventures like this, sometimes with one Primarch, sometimes with several.
Although everyone complained at the beginning that they had this and that problem to deal with and had no time to die with Vito, in the end, they would all participate in it, and most of the time, they would be in a good mood.
Magnus recalled those memories and jumped into the door at once. The golden ocean swallowed his vision in the blink of an eye, but immediately dispersed from his eyes. Magnus passed through the door at once. After he jumped out, he stepped on a piece of ground, a stable, non-floating ground.
"Ah, it looks like we've hit the jackpot." Vito stood a few steps away from Magnus, with his hands on his hips, standing on the edge of the rock like an adventurer, looking at something in the distance. Magnus looked at Vito and slowly raised his head to look forward.
A magnificent city came into Magnus's sight, an ancient Eldar ruined city came into view.
"Welcome, Letarinya."