Warhammer: Starting as a Planetary Governor-Chapter 235 - 236: A Crack in the Webway?

A massive figure suddenly landed in front of everyone. Nearly three meters tall, it radiated a thick aura of Chaos.

A demon!?

Eden frowned, sensing trouble.

Demons that could grow wings were generally never low-level.

If this had happened more than a decade ago, just one such demon would have plunged the already declining Urth into dire straits.

The demon stared coldly at the crowd, revealing a cruel grin as its saliva dripped to the ground.

Fresh flesh…

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For a being of the Warp, it may not have tasted the fresh flesh of the material world for tens of millions of years.That was an indescribably powerful temptation!

Thump, thump, thump.

The demon advanced further. These weak humans would become its meal.

It stretched out its demonic claw toward the terrified engineers in front of it. "Humans, surrender yourselves—"

Boom!

Before the demon could finish speaking, a dark shape rushed in with a roar.

It was Carter!

He suddenly leaped over a dozen meters and delivered a fierce blow to the demon's face.

Boom—

Half of the demon's fangs shattered, scattering on the ground. The huge impact slammed it heavily to the floor.

A howl of rage and agony echoed in the air.

"What the hell...who dares to sneak up on me?"

The demon's consciousness struggled in a whirlpool of pain. It couldn't even comprehend what had happened, only letting out helpless roars.

That single strike almost split its skull open.

Just as the demon tried to regain its wits and stand up again—

A powerful foot ruthlessly kicked into its massive form, slamming it to the ground once more.

This time, the demon's vision finally became clearer. Reflected in its malicious eyes was the figure of the attacker.

A cold expression, heavy dark-gold power armor, and the violent aura emanating from him would give any demon pause!

A trace of fear began to spread in the demon's eyes. It never imagined it could feel fear before a human.

But in the next second, its vision plunged into darkness.

Carter remained expressionless. He lifted his muscular arm and grabbed the demon's head like an iron vise.

With a violent twist, infused with unstoppable power, he drove the demon's head straight into the hard ground with tremendous force!

A dull crash resounded, and the ground trembled under the impact.

Awooo—

The demon's massive body convulsed in pain, its once-arrogant roar turning into a wail of agony.

Seeing this scene, everyone was momentarily stunned, deeply shaken.

"Hey, hey, hey, stop gawking! Quickly get the equipment back onto the ship!" Eden called out loudly.

Those precious devices absolutely could not be damaged.

Under his order, the transport teams moved on.

Eden stayed at the rear of the group.

He watched Carter pummel the demon to death with punch after punch, splattering fragments of bone and blood.

This captain of the Thunder Guard still maintained his trademark brutality toward heretical beings.

He didn't even bother using a chainsword and instead handled it in such a bloody way.

Eden suspected that without his blessing, Carter would likely have ended up as a warrior under Khorne's banner.

But this was good. Against heretical entities, overwhelming violence was often the best deterrent.

Eden felt a bit sentimental.

There was a time when even a single demon host had put him on high alert.Now, with advanced combat forces at his disposal, even a powerful demon far beyond the strength of a mere demon host couldn't cause much trouble.

His Thunder Guards alone could crush them.

Suddenly, Eden sensed even more chaotic energy.

More demons?

He looked up. In the sky, several new demons had caught the scent of fresh flesh and were rushing over eagerly.

"Savior, please step back. We'll deal with these heretics," Carter said as he blocked Eden's way. He drew a dark-red chainsword, and more than a dozen Thunder Guards gathered around.

"All right. Be careful."

Eden nodded and headed back with the transport team to the survey ship at a faster pace.

He had only walked a short distance when he heard the rumble of bolter fire from behind.

Yet he wasn't too concerned. That number of demons couldn't hurt the Thunder Guard squad.

The transport team returned to the area where the survey ship was docked and began loading equipment into the cargo hold.

Before long, the other exploration teams came back one after another.

They had found various Eldar technological artifacts, from weapons to daily appliances, practically stripping anything that could be dismantled.

After all, only by taking all of it could they systematically study Eldar technology.

This was a nearly intact ancient Eldar city, still operational. Many of these technological items might not even exist among the current Eldar anymore.

Much like humans, the Eldar had lost a great deal of technology from their golden age and were wary of some of what remained.

No matter how advanced or open-minded a civilization is, disasters often make them revert to conservatism or even ignorance.

You could say that no matter how far a civilization develops, there will always be soil for religion and superstition.

Eden looked over at Duke and the other warriors escorting the survey teams, noticing battle marks on their armor.

He asked in surprise, "You were attacked, too?"

Duke answered methodically, "Yes, Savior. We also encountered demons, but not many."

A small number of demons was still easy enough to handle.

Especially here in the Webway, where the Warp energies are active. The Void Angels among them would have even greater combat strength.

Eden frowned. Based on reports from Duke and the others, as soon as the Eldar psychic barrier vanished, they were hit with multiple demonic attacks.

Fortunately, they had deployed enough guards that the losses were minimal.

Had they sent only the Storm Army as usual, the losses would have been considerable.

Those storm troopers would struggle to withstand demonic attacks.

Eden had been mentally prepared for the presence of demons in the Webway. Otherwise, he wouldn't have assigned so many Thunder Guards.

The Webway's Warp energies were highly active and had existed for countless millennia.Having a few demons sneak inside was entirely possible.

As long as there were no large cracks in the Webway that would allow a massive demon horde to surge in, Eden was confident he could clean them out.

With large transport machines helping, the engineering team soon loaded the Eldar tech onto the ship.

Once all was packed, everyone boarded.

...

On the bridge—

Eden waited in silence.

With the cargo hold fully loaded, the survey ship was ready to depart.

Only Carter's Thunder Guard squad hadn't returned yet. Once they came aboard, everyone would head back to the Holy Land of Urth.

But even after waiting a long time, there was still no sign of Carter's group.

Could they have gone after some demons?

He didn't plan to send anyone out to search. That would be unrealistic.

If the Thunder Guards couldn't handle a certain problem, sending more people would just increase casualties and possibly slow them down.

Eden used his monocular to scan the distance, then turned and asked the communications officer, "Have you made contact with them?"

The communications officer tried again, only to shake his head. "Savior, I can't pick up Captain Carter's signal. The interference here is too strong."

Eden sighed and didn't press the matter.

He was only trying on the off chance; he didn't really expect success.

Distance in the Webway isn't fixed, and with such active Warp energy, communication signals are easily disrupted.

They had already tested this before. Communicating inside the Webway was difficult, only possible at close range, and even then it was hampered by interference.

Once, a communications officer heard strange whispers during a transmission and started conversing with some unknown entity.Had the adjutant not noticed in time, it could have led to a corruption incident.

To enable easy communication in the Webway, a huge effort would be needed to build signal relay stations.

"Kaul, is this level of Warp energy in the Webway normal?" Eden asked suddenly.

Right now, the Warp energy inside was extremely active, and there were so many demons.He couldn't help but worry.

If something was wrong with the Webway, it would be a massive disaster.

Beep…beep…beep…

"Please wait a moment."

Mechanical alarms whined. Kaul was holding a strange, makeshift instrument, seeming to measure something.

This was an energy-detection device he had just created.

A red warning light flashed.

Kaul, looking at the readings, had his twin red mechanical eyes light up slightly. Then he raised his head:

"I had already noticed something off about this. Now I have a preliminary answer.

The Webway was built with anti-psyker materials. It shouldn't have such an active Warp energy field.

Strictly speaking, the energy value here is 2.5 times higher than theoretical predictions..."

"What's the cause?"

"It could be long-term seepage from the Warp. After all, this structure dates back to ancient times."

He stroked his chin thoughtfully. "Of course, there's another possibility: some part of the Webway is damaged, causing Warp energy to leak in.

In that scenario, the Warp activity would keep increasing..."

Hiss—

Hearing the word "damage," Eden felt a chill down his spine. His entire body went numb.

"I personally lean toward the second possibility," Kaul added another blow. He waved the detection device in front of Eden. "Because the readings are rising slowly, increasing by about 1% each year.

If we don't fix it, eventually this place could fully merge with the Warp. Just be prepared for that possibility."

Wonderful…

Eden's hopes plummeted, and he fell into a long silence.

Who knew how long that crack had existed or how many demons had already poured through? This was a total disaster.

Kaul stood there awkwardly, waiting for the Savior to ask him about solutions.But Eden didn't say anything.

Finally, Kaul couldn't hold back and cleared his throat. "Savior, I admit my words may have been a bit dramatic.

Even if this damage is recent and small, we can't afford to ignore it. If we don't fix it, in about ten thousand years, this Webway will be destroyed.

But don't worry, as long as I have enough resources, I'm confident I can repair—"

"I only have one question," Eden abruptly interrupted. "Can demons use that crack to enter the Webway?"

Huh?

Kaul froze.

His red electronic eyes flickered slightly. He clearly hadn't considered that point.

"Demons... Wait a minute!"

Kaul also realized the terrifying possibility. He immediately pulled up vast amounts of data on his dataslate. The volume of information would drive any tech-priest insane.

He then calculated frantically.

Over the years, Kaul had conducted extensive research on Warp energy, so by measuring its concentration and decay rates, he could estimate the crack's approximate scale.

In a burst of high-speed input, sparks flared as his mechanical hands struck the console.

After a while, with his CPU overheated to a glowing red, Kaul reached his conclusion.

Seeing the result, he couldn't help blurting out, "What the...Omnissiah!"

His body trembled, sweat—or rather machine oil—beading on his forehead."Ac...according to the calculations, that crack can indeed allow demons to pass through. If I'm not mistaken, far more of them might have come in than we realize..."

"Prepare the strike craft at once to pick up Carter and his squad!"

Eden's heart skipped a beat at that answer, and he immediately gave the order.

Under normal circumstances, it wouldn't take Carter this long just to handle a few demons.The fact they hadn't returned yet likely meant they had encountered far more.

The bigger problem was that the arrival of the survey ship had broken the Webway's calm.

Drawn by the scent of the material realm, the demons would swarm the Webway gates in droves!

Eden thought of an even more frightening possibility.

There were countless demons in the Warp. If these were only normal demons, that would be bad enough.

But if the four Chaos Gods themselves took note of the crack, they absolutely wouldn't pass up such a rare chance.

Generally, Chaos daemons could only enter the material realm through warp portals, sacrificial rituals, or by slowly corrupting reality to gather enough energy.

But a crack in the Webway was like a high-speed highway for them.

Just like that time under Holy Terra, where a Webway breach existed.

The four Chaos Gods would certainly dispatch Greater Daemons leading legions to occupy this new breach.

It would become a beachhead for Chaos's invasion of the material world.

For an instant, Eden thought he saw a "Blackstone Throne" beckoning him. He was about to earn that "imperial privilege."

Actually, the best outcome would be simply plugging the "toilet." If he failed, and the God-Emperor couldn't seal two places at once, he'd become humanity's biggest sinner.

Of course, that was the worst-case scenario.

So far, the demons they encountered didn't show signs of any of the four Chaos Gods.

"Savior!"

A transmission officer suddenly yelled, "We got a message from Captain Carter. He says...run!"

What!?

Eden's heart lurched. They really were in deep trouble!

At the same time, he sensed a chaotic aura heading their way.

Eden spun around and looked out the porthole, roaring, "Get out there and pick them up!"

Through the window, he could just make out Carter and the others sprinting toward them.

In the sky and on the ground behind them, black shapes surged like a tide.

All of them...demons!

On the ground, the Thunder Guards charged, killing any demon in their path.

Carter's expression grew colder.

This surprise demon attack had already cost him a good brother!

Whoosh—

Several dropships sped in for rescue, their hatches open. The Thunder Guards activated their jump packs, leaping into the bays.

Carter was the last to board.

He suddenly whirled around, grabbed a demon that tried to fly into the craft by the neck, and smashed its head with a single punch.

Right before the hatch closed, he hurled the demon's corpse out, slamming it into another demon that was trying to get in.

The dropships pushed their speed to the limit, racing toward the Webway exit.

Ahead of them was the survey ship, which had already taken off.

Boom, boom, boom—

Cannons at the rear of the ship fired a barrage, trying to slow the demon horde's advance.

Yet there were just too many demons, and the attacks barely helped.

Luckily, the demons weren't that fast.

"Faster!"

On the bridge, Eden urged the pilot.

They had to rush to the teleportation gate, exit the Webway, and seal the entrance.No demons could be allowed to slip out.

"There it is!"

Soon, he saw the teleportation gate. The dropships and the survey ship passed through in quick succession.

Behind them, the demon horde roared in fury upon spotting the gate and charged forward recklessly.

…

Blackstone Gate

Boom—

A few dropships rushed out of the gate.

One of them was going so fast that it scraped the outer mechanical ring, knocking a bunch of equipment aside.

An instant later—

The survey ship emerged as well.

Inside the Blackstone Throne, Eden's consciousness returned to his main body. He watched the teleportation gate intently on the mechanical screen.

Seeing all the ships exit, he immediately manipulated the throne to start sealing the portal.

Zzzt, zzzt—

The throne instantly ramped up its psychic extraction speed, arcs of energy crackling.

Damn!

Eden felt the throne's psychic draw double. Excruciating pain tore through his body.

At the same time, on-screen he could see the teleportation gate shift color, turning nearly golden at the center.

Those energies were converging to seal it shut.

He sensed the demon horde had already reached the gate, throwing themselves at it with insane fervor.

"Faster…"

Fortunately, before the demon tide could break through, the portal was completely sealed!

"Hmm? One got out?" Eden looked at the mechanical display, his expression odd.

What a lucky fellow…

On the Blackstone Gate platform—

Thump, thump, thump!

A massive demonic figure stepped through the gate.

Nearly four meters tall, this greater demon was wreathed in thick hellfire, radiating a terrifying aura.

Roar—

The greater demon bellowed with excitement, its roar shaking the sky.

At last, it had reached the legendary material realm, free to devour fresh flesh to its heart's content.

But in the next moment, it froze.

Awo?

In the demon's sight:

A colossal fleet loomed in the starry sky above, countless cold gun barrels pointed this way.

On the ground stood nearly a thousand warriors composed of Thunder Guards, Void Angels, and War Angels.

Behind them was an entire heavy synthetic brigade, heavily armed with a dense defensive line.

A trace of dread flickered in the greater demon's icy eyes, but it wasn't too worried. After all, an endless demon army should be right behind it!

That army would tear these defiant humans to pieces, then devour them all!

Yet something felt off—why was it so quiet?

The greater demon turned, only to see an empty gate shimmering with golden energy.

Not a single demon in sight.

???

Am I the only one here?

(End of Chapter)

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