195: Chapter 195 Slaanesh the Great Demon All at Once

The fleet sailed in the Warp for three hours and seventeen minutes.

When the Labyrinth of Ecstasy appeared within sensor range, even the most steadfast officers of the Human Federation experienced a moment of breathlessness; it was not a labyrinth, but a living work of art.

Tens of thousands of constantly shifting colorful pillars extended infinitely, intertwined, and wound from every direction in the void. Each pillar was composed of pure sensory experiences: the final wail of a dying star, the first ray of dawn on a newborn maiden world, the grandest revelry of a civilization before its demise, and the seven happiest seconds in a mortal's life—all captured, purified, and eternally frozen by the Greater Demons of Slaanesh.

Countless indulgence-seekers floated within the labyrinth: fallen champions, lost Aeldari, high-ranking Imperial officials who had walked into the trap, and those crazed cultists who had voluntarily sacrificed themselves in exchange for an eternal peak experience. They drifted between the pillars, their faces frozen in eternal ecstasy, with the never-ending perfect moments they were experiencing reflected deep within their eye-sockets.

And guarding all of this was the Council of Keepers of Secrets.

Thirteen Slaanesh Greater Demons. Each represented an extreme: extreme pain, extreme pleasure, extreme terror, extreme tranquility, extreme desire, extreme emptiness, and so on. They surrounded the core of the labyrinth, maintaining a delicate balance between eternal indulgence and eternal vigilance.

"Causality Disruptor, activate on all frequencies!" Lei Huan ordered.

Seven hundred and twenty adjudicator-class ships simultaneously released Causality Disruptor pulses. Wherever the pulses passed, those eternally existing pillars within the Labyrinth of Ecstasy began to falter. The moment the causality chain was interfered with, these sensory experiences anchored by specific causality lost their eternal foundation and began to decay at a rate visible to the naked eye.

The thirteen pairs of eyes of the Council of Keepers of Secrets opened simultaneously; they had discovered the intruders, but it was too late.

"Starfall Cannon, fire at will! Target: Council of Keepers of Secrets! Combat-type gods bottle, preheat! All units, prepare to engage the enemy!"

The next twenty hours were a new type of war between the Human Federation and Chaos, unlike any before.

It was not the human-wave charges of demon legions, nor the psychic storms of Chaos sorcerers; it was a collision of laws against laws.

Every counterattack from the Council of Keepers of Secrets carried the extreme characteristics of Slaanesh's essence. The aura of eternal pleasure released by one Greater Demon could make any creature within a three-hundred-kilometer radius instantly experience ten thousand years of extreme happiness, then suffer soul collapse from the inability to endure it. However, within the isolation field of the Void Barrier, that aura was reduced to less than one-billionth, only causing a few crew members to produce brief smiles.

The scream of endless pain from another Greater Demon was theoretically enough to tear apart the atomic bonds of any material structure. But in the local gravity modulation field generated by the Star God weapons, the atomic bonds were forcibly reinforced; the scream was like an infant howling at a titanium alloy wall.

The Causality Disruptor caused the Keepers of Secrets to lose their ability for foresight and fate interference. They had to react in real-time like mortals, while the cold and efficient firepower coordination of the Human Federation fleet was far beyond what any Chaos entity could match.

One, two, five, nine.

Within the crushing star god law and the encirclement of the Order Field, the Council of Keepers of Secrets fell one by one. Their bodies were evaporated by Starfall Cannons, and their essences were forcibly extracted, compressed, and sealed by Combat-type Gods Flask Units.

The tenth Keeper of Secrets, the Lord of Extreme Tranquility, attempted to detonate its own essence at the moment of capture, intending to perish along with everything within a one-light-second radius. But the Causality Disruptor locked onto the causality chain between its will to detonate and the act of detonation in advance, stretching that chain to infinite length. Between the decision to detonate and the detonation occurring, the Lord of Tranquility experienced an eternal microsecond until it was completely devoured by the gods bottle.

The twelfth, the thirteenth.

The last Keeper of Secrets, the incarnation of extreme emptiness, made a choice that was unbelievable to all Human Federation officers the moment it was locked onto by the Starfall Cannons: it fled.

A high-ranking Slaanesh Greater Demon abandoned its duty of guardianship, tore through the back wall of the Labyrinth of Ecstasy, and fled frantically toward the depths of the Palace of Pleasure.

"Pursue." Lei Huan's command was just one word. The pursuit lasted for six hours.

That Greater Demon fled into the outer halls of the Palace of Pleasure, a bizarre space composed of countless prisms reflecting infinite illusions of pleasure. Within each prism was sealed an extreme sensory slice collected by Slaanesh from different civilizations and eras.

The pursuit fleet wove through these prisms. Every second, crew members were briefly mesmerized by the illusions projected from the prisms, but the Psychological Steel Stamps forged by hatred forcibly pulled them back from the edge of distraction. The isolation field of the Void Barrier protected the core of the fleet, while the Causality Disruptor continuously interfered with the defense logic of the Palace of Pleasure itself.

Finally, before a waterfall composed of eternal orgasms, that Greater Demon was intercepted.

It turned around, gazing at the eighteen silent Titan ships with an indescribable look that mixed fear and pleading.

Then it spoke—not in language, but through pure conceptual transmission: "I can serve you. I know everything about the Lord of Pleasure. I can lead you into the core of the Palace of Pleasure and find the sanctuary where He slumbers. I can become your most loyal subordinate..."

"Shut up." Lei Huan's voice pierced through all the disguises of the conceptual transmission, like the hardest hammer smashing the most fragile glass. "The Human Federation does not trade with Chaos."

"Fire."

The twelfth and thirteenth Keepers of Secrets, along with that Lord of Extreme Emptiness who had attempted to defect, were melted, decomposed, and devoured by the gods bottle in a volley from the Starfall Cannons.

Forty-two hours.

Five hours remained in the mission window.

The Labyrinth of Ecstasy had been completely destroyed. All thirteen Greater Demons of the Council of Keepers of Secrets were captured or killed. The patrols of the Pioneers of Pleasure had been wiped out six hours ago, and seven Pioneer Greater Demons had been suppressed. The veil of the Whisperer in the Mirror, which protected Slaanesh's domain and the physical universe, had been torn with a permanent rift by the Human Federation using the Causality Disruptor.

Of the Gods Flask Units carried by the fleet, three were full and two were nearly full. The captured Greater Demon essences were being preliminarily suppressed, waiting to be transported back to the Tomb of Time for deep analysis.

Lei Huan gazed at the even deeper, variegated colors in the sensors representing the core of the Palace of Pleasure.

"adjudicator, continue the deduction on the possibility of going deeper."

"Completed." The adjudicator's response carried a rare sense of regret. "Continuing deeper into the core of the Palace of Pleasure increases the probability of encountering the direct attention of Slaanesh's true form to 67%. Given the current fleet status, the probability of a successful withdrawal under the intervention of Slaanesh's true form is 12%. Further penetration is not recommended."

"The capture results have exceeded the expected targets. It is recommended to initiate the withdrawal procedure."

Lei Huan was silent for three seconds.

"All units, turn around. Recover all Combat-type gods bottles. Activate the return channel beacons. We're going home."

As the fleet of warships, scarred but laden with spoils, passed through that closing rift of order and re-entered the dark-gold light of the Sea of Order, Lei Huan finally let out a long breath.

Forty-seven hours, precise to the minute. Phase one of Operation Spear of Dawn: Success.

Keystone-1 Command Center.

Han Zhe gazed at the first list of captured Greater Demons sent back by the gods bottle transport ships.

Thirteen from the Council of Keepers of Secrets, all captured; seven Pioneers of Pleasure, all suppressed.

A fragment of the Whisperer in the Mirror's essence, torn off by the Causality Disruptor, would serve as an excellent sample for cross-domain perception research.

"adjudicator, assess the strategic value of this harvest."

"Beyond expectations." The adjudicator's voice carried an irrepressible satisfaction. "The Slaanesh Greater Demon samples obtained cover their domain defense, essence composition, causality chain dependency patterns, and a complete hierarchy of their perception mechanisms of the physical universe. Combined with the analytical data from the captured Avatar of Slaanesh (Prince of Pleasure) and the Primarch (Fulgrim), our understanding of Slaanesh's essence will reach a level sufficient to simulate its core logic within a year."

"More importantly, this operation has proven that the Warp is not the absolute home field of the Chaos Gods. Supported by star god law and Void Barrier technology, the Human Federation now possesses the capability to actively enter the Warp and selectively eliminate high-ranking Chaos entities."

"Deterrence significance: For the first time, the Chaos Gods will face an enemy they cannot predict, cannot corrupt, and who can in turn hunt them. This will trigger unprecedented panic and self-doubt deep within the Warp."

Han Zhe nodded slowly.

"Order: Encrypt and archive the data from Operation Spear of Dawn with maximum clearance. Transfer the captured Greater Demon samples to containment units seven through twelve in the Tomb of Time for cross-analysis with the Avatar of Slaanesh and Primarch samples."

"adjudicator, initiate phase two of the Chaos Essence Deep Analysis Project. Goal: Complete the construction of computable models for the core logic of the Four Chaos Gods within three years."

"When we can predict the behavior of the Chaos Gods as easily as we predict physical laws, they will no longer be gods; they will just be data."

Outside the window, the dark-gold pulsation of the Sea of Order remained steady. On the other side of that stitched rift, the remnants of the Eye of Terror still bled the poisonous blood of Chaos.

But Han Zhe knew that the residents on the other side of the Eye of Terror—those Chaos Gods, their demon legions, and their fallen Primarchs—were shivering deep within the Warp at this moment.

Because the identities of hunter and prey had, from this day forward, completely changed.