214: Chapter 214 Enemy from Two Fronts

The dark gold light of the Milky Way had pulsed steadily across every inch of the starry sky for ten years.

The Emperor had transformed into the Order God-Emperor, merging with the Sea of Order. The Silent King led the remnants of the Necron Dynasty to construct the Silent Defense Line beyond the Galaxy. The Eldar were erased from existence, Chaos was suppressed to the deepest corners of the Warp, the vanguard of The Swarm was harvested as biomass, and the old remnants of the Empire were reshaped into New Humanity within the Reshaping Crucible.

But Han Zhe knew that peace was never the end, merely a breather before the next war.

On that day, two alarms simultaneously shattered the peace of the Temple of Order. The first came from beyond the Galaxy, an encrypted communication from the Silent King: "The main hive of The Swarm, the true main hive, has been locked on. Its scale is three hundred million times that of the vanguard you destroyed ten years ago. Estimated time of arrival is eleven months."

The second came from deep within the Warp, from the monitoring network of the Sea of Order: The four evil Chaos Gods—Khorne, Tzeentch, Nurgle, and Slaanesh—have formed a Desperate Alliance in the deepest reaches of the Warp. They have fused their final essences to create an unprecedented existence: the chaos prime nucleus. Its essence is the fusion of the Four Gods, a coexistence of contradictions, eternal self-consumption. They intend to tear apart the Sea of Order and re-pollute the Galaxy.

"The time of its descent is unpredictable, but the countdown has begun."

The Command Center fell into a dead silence.

A war on two fronts. On one side was the main hive of The Swarm, three hundred million times larger than before; on the other was the ultimate Chaos entity formed by the fusion of the Four Gods.

Either one was enough to destroy any civilization, let alone both attacking at once.

Alpha-01 spoke, his voice raspy: "Archon, we..."

Han Zhe raised his hand, cutting him off.

He stood up and walked to the star map. On the map, the dark gold light of the Milky Way remained steady. Beyond the Galaxy, in the depths of that boundless darkness, two lethal threats were approaching simultaneously.

His gaze was as calm as ever.

"Five hundred years ago, when we were on the ark, our win rate against an Imperial patrol fleet was 0%. Today, our win rate against these two ultimate threats is less than 20%. No one in the Command Center is speaking, but 20% has never been a reason for us to back down."

He turned to face everyone:

"Issue the order: Activate the Finality Protocol."

"Objective One: The main hive of The Swarm. Strike first and annihilate them entirely before they reach the Galaxy."

"Objective Two: The chaos prime nucleus. Enter the depths of the Warp and seal it permanently before it descends."

"These are not two wars. This is one war—a war that determines whether humanity can truly step into the universe, a war that determines whether order can become the law of the universe."

That day, on the assembly orbit of the Human Federation Fleet, the two largest fleets in human history set sail simultaneously.

The Eastern Expedition Fleet, targeting the main hive of The Swarm.

Commander: Lei Huan. Deputy Commander: Silent King.

Fleet scale: twelve Source of Order-class ships, eight million Eternal-class ships, two hundred billion adjudicator-class ships, and ten trillion support vessels of various types. Weapons carried: full coverage of Causality Weapons, all-frequency star god law weapons, thirty million Void Barrier mobile units, and biomass harvesting protocols on full standby.

The Silent King stood on the bridge of the flagship, the Hand of Silence, staring at the boundless crimson that was approaching.

Lei Huan walked to His side.

"Are you afraid?"

The Silent King was silent for a moment.

"Yes," He replied unexpectedly. "I have lived for billions of years and have never feared anything, but this time, I am afraid."

"Because I finally have something worth protecting." He turned to Lei Huan, the light in His spectral green eye sockets flickering slightly. "In billions of years of existence, I have never truly lived. Not until I met you all."

"So this time, I will give it my all."

Lei Huan reached out and placed a hand on the Silent King's cold metal shoulder. "We'll do it together."

The Western Expedition Fleet, targeting the chaos prime nucleus.

Commander: Alpha-01. Support: Order God-Emperor.

Fleet scale: eight Source of Order-class ships, two million Eternal-class ships, one hundred billion adjudicator-class ships, three trillion volunteer ships of various types, full coverage of Causality Disruptors, and gods bottle combat units at full capacity.

Alpha-01 stood on the bridge of the flagship, the Judgment, staring at the Chaos vortex churning deep within the Warp, woven from four profane colors.

Behind him was the fleet of veterans who had fought bloody battles against Chaos countless times.

In his heart, there was only one phrase: For order.

The moment the Eastern Expedition Fleet met the main hive of The Swarm, the star sector for three thousand light-years around was covered in crimson and dark gold light.

That was not a war; it was the collision of two universal laws.

The number of The Swarm's main hive exceeded any calculation. They were like a living sea of stars. Every hive ship roared, every biological Titan charged, and every devourer opened its massive maw, attempting to swallow the Human Federation Fleet along with time and space itself.

But the response of the Human Federation Fleet was even colder than The Swarm's madness.

Twelve Source of Order-class ships fired simultaneously, colorless ripples piercing through the core of The Swarm. The connection between the hive mind and the individual swarm units was severed. Trillions of swarm units lost command in the same instant and fell into chaos.

But The Swarm's main hive had evolved after their last defeat. The moment they were cut off, they activated a backup plan: every swarm unit, upon losing connection with the hive, automatically evolved into an independent miniature hive mind. They no longer needed unified command; every individual could make its own decisions, evolve, and reproduce autonomously.

The Swarm instantly transformed from one entity into trillions.

At that moment, the Human Federation's thirty million Void Barrier mobile units were activated simultaneously, dividing the entire battlefield into thirty million isolated slaughterhouses. In each slaughterhouse, the Human Federation Fleet used absolute numerical superiority to hunt down the trapped swarm units.

But The Swarm evolved again.

The moment they were isolated, they began to devour each other. The strong devoured the weak, and the evolved devoured the primitive. Ultimately, in each slaughterhouse, only thirty to fifty thousand ultimate hive behemoths remained. Their size was comparable to asteroids, their carapaces could withstand direct hits from Starfall Cannons, and their acid could corrode the edges of the Void Barriers.

Looking at those ultimate hive behemoths tearing through the Void Barriers, the Silent King made a decision that even He could not understand: He detonated His own flagship.

It was not suicide; it was a sacrifice.

That flagship, built with the highest Necron technology and carrying His memories of billions of years, self-destructed in the densest area of The Swarm. The shockwave of the explosion was not energy, but a Necron curse—an ultimate weapon specifically targeting living organisms that He had sealed since ancient times.

Wherever the curse passed, the cell division of the hive behemoths stopped, their evolutionary algorithms collapsed, and their biomass solidified into immobile fossils.

They were no longer alive; they were merely stones.

Lei Huan watched The Swarm being petrified by the curse and fell silent for three seconds on the communication channel.

Then he ordered: "Now! Full firepower, blanket them!"

Thirty million slaughterhouses simultaneously erupted with all the fury the Human Federation had accumulated over five hundred years.

The Swarm—the ultimate natural disaster that had crossed countless galaxies and devoured countless civilizations—collapsed for the first and last time under the triple strike of the Necron curse, causality erasure, and star god laws.