129: Pyrrhic victory

"Final Protocol... approved." Han Zhe's voice was like a quenching ice Blade, cutting through the last shred of hesitation in the command center. The command instantly transformed into a highest-priority data flood, rushing toward the roaring "abyss of order" deep within the core of Keystone-0.

There were no impassioned proclamations, no tragic ceremonies. Only on the monitoring screens, all the curves representing energy load, reality stress, and logical stability surged toward the red warning line of absolute destruction at a near-vertical angle.

"'abyss of order' output power... 150%... 200%... 300%! Siphon channel overloaded! Reality structure stress index has broken the critical point! The 'anchoring' array is melting down!" The Chief Technologist's voice was drowned out by the shrieking alarms.

Deep within the planetary core, the dark-gold flood drawing Warp energy suddenly became violent, blazing, and unstable! At the center of the flood, the dark gold began to transform into a blinding white-gold, releasing no longer pure "order energy," but a destructive "Chaos-order Annihilation Radiation"—a mixture of the ultimate "Orderly" will and the Warp's violent essence! Wherever this radiation passed, space itself began to groan under the unbearable burden, manifesting subtle yet lethal fissures.

This terrifying, out-of-control energy was not directly injected into the Human Federation's energy storage network (which would have destroyed everything instantly); instead, it was guided and forcibly "jetted" out of the planetary surface of Keystone-0. Like the death throes of a supernova, it transformed into countless white-gold spears of destruction spanning the sea of stars, indiscriminately sweeping across every corner of the battlefield!

The battlefield was instantly ignited into a white-gold purgatory!

The filthy warships of Chaos bore the brunt of the attack. Under the wash of the white-gold spears, the profane psychic energy fused with the power of the dark gods melted and evaporated as quickly as snow meeting lava. Chaos warriors and demonic entities let out wails more shrill than death itself; their very "existence," along with the Warp essence that carried them, was brutally "neutralized" and erased by this violent "Orderly-Chaos Annihilation" force. The Black Legion's formation disintegrated like an ant colony struck by an invisible giant hammer, as vast swaths of crimson signals winked out on the star map.

The sophisticated polyhedral ships of the Men of Iron suffered catastrophic logical disorder and overload under the impact of the white-gold radiation. The absolute cold logic they relied on for survival was as fragile as glass before this completely out-of-control violent force that defied all conventional laws of energy. Some ships "crashed" directly due to logic core collapses, becoming floating metal coffins; others self-destructed because of energy system overloads, turning into brilliant but lethal silver-blue fireballs. Only a tiny few core vessels, relying on superior adaptive capabilities, forcibly tore open "deep reality crevices" and fled in disarray with severe damage, though their intimidating "Scanning Grids" were completely shattered.

The mysterious fleet of the Eldar was the most alert. In the instant before the white-gold radiation erupted, most Eldar ships, relying on their superb psychic precognition and mobility, retreated into the depths of the Warp in advance, avoiding the most direct impact. However, the radiation's violent disturbance of the reality structure still severely interfered with their psychic navigation and ritual positioning, forcing the remaining Eldar units to abandon all attack and theft plans. They vanished from the edge of the battlefield like startled ghosts, leaving behind only a few wrecks that had been grazed by the radiation's aftershocks, slowly disintegrating while engulfed in eerie psychic flames.

Only the Necrons remained.

The Tomb Fleet of the Szarekh Dynasty, with hulls based on Living Metal and Phase Technology, possessed extremely high resistance to energy attacks. Although the white-gold annihilation radiation washing over their eerie green hulls caused noticeable surface "passivation" and energy circuit disruption, it failed to deliver a devastating blow as it had against Chaos. Nevertheless, this unprecedented energy eruption still interfered with their phase stability and the precision of their Gauss Weaponry. More importantly, the cold logic of the Necrons determined that the cost-effectiveness of remaining in this extremely unstable energy environment—where multiple powerful factions were in a chaotic melee—to conduct "indiscriminate purging" was now too low. After enduring several waves of white-gold radiation and losing several "Scythe-class" Harvesters, the eerie green Necron fleet, like a receding tide, initiated a synchronized phase shift and silently vanished into the newly calmed warped space, carrying their unfinished "purge" directives.

The white-gold light of purgatory lasted for a full three minutes.

When the last white-gold radiation spear dissipated in the void, a dull boom, as if the planet's heart had shattered, echoed from the direction of Keystone-0. Subsequently, the heart-pounding dark-gold and white-gold light that had been illuminating the star map suddenly extinguished for the most part, leaving only a weak, unstable pulsation.

The battlefield fell into a deathly silence.

No, it was not complete silence. There were still countless small explosions, the groans of twisting metal, the hissing of energy leaks, and... the final meaningless radio static of the dying.

The once colorful star sector, filled with the clamor of destruction, was now shrouded in a heavy "Death Nebula" composed of warship wreckage, energy embers, and eerie radioactive dust. Within the nebula, broken Chaos runes occasionally flickered feebly, or a metal fragment from the Men of Iron reflected the cold starlight. The Eldar and Necrons had vanished without a trace, as if they had never been there.

And in the center of this Death Nebula, the dark-gold area representing the Human Federation was equally scarred, its light dim.

"'abyss of order' report: Core structure severely damaged, siphon power permanently dropped to 15% of pre-upgrade levels. The logic core of 'custodian-alpha' has entered a forced deep sleep due to overload impact; recovery time is unknown." The Chief Technologist's voice was hoarse, trembling with the shock of survival and a sense of immense loss. "Surface defense systems of 'Keystone-0' are 67% destroyed, and large-scale instability has appeared in the crustal structure."

"'Blade' Fleet loss report..." Alpha-01's voice came from the front line, weary but still steady. "'titan-class': 'the judgement' is confirmed destroyed, 'the purifier' is heavily damaged and has lost combat capability; all others have sustained varying degrees of damage. Nineteen 'arbiter-class' ships lost, seven 'dominator-class' ships... total tonnage loss across all vessel types exceeds 45%. Personnel casualties... still being tallied, estimated to exceed one million."