Soul of Searing Steel

Panda Novel

Faraway, the Multiverse where inexhaustive worlds crowded.

This was largest swarm of galaxies in the observable world, a patterned disc shape that the champions could observe in the Void. Infinite worlds were tidily arranged to shape into an unthinkably profound collection of worlds.

The energy levels of worlds were higher the closer a galaxy was to the center of the Multiverse, and the more would worlds resemble their early melted form. Even if resources were abundant, such worlds were not suitable for some intelligent life—instead, it was the worlds on the outer circle where many intelligent civilizations were born.

In a fringe galaxy to the right bottom of the Multiverse, a rapidly developing civilization that was founded a thousand years ago was expanding into the Void.

Calling themselves the Eldar, they were beelike creatures that gained self through souls, hence advancing as a civilization. They had been omnivorous herd insects, their social constitution being one resembling that of bees where only the queen possess intelligence in each hive. Still, a large case of seismic activity exposed subterranean arcane minerals to the surface, causing awakenings where the hive individuals would gain souls and develop intelligence.

Surprisingly, they did not develop a hivemind even after gaining intelligence. In fact, they formed monarchies that revolved around each queen, before subsequently developing a constitutional monarchy with figurehead leaders through a series of social reforms.

The Eldars were born with mature personalities and were adept at following orders, eventually developing complex but efficient bureaucracy that governs complicated global hives. Apart from that, they were very curious about otherworld lifeforms since there were no other intelligent life with awakened souls in their homeworld.

In truth, the Eldars were favored by fortune—their galaxy was unusually small, and a lack of high-energy environments meant there were no developed Void Civilizations. Likewise, the notorious civilizations that wreaked havoc across the Multiverse Galaxy were inactive in this galaxy—not even the closest of them, the Knowers.

That being said, the Eldars were also unaware that the Knowers had actually discovered them—but they were too backwater then, which was why the Knowers did not make the effort to approach them.

That was why the Eldars essentially occupied a galaxy to themselves. They had expanded without restraint in the last millennia just as their technological standard improved exponentially,

Apart from that single ambush 351 years ago.

It all began with an abnormal dimensional shift. The Central Hive had been received an urgent alert from one of the fringe stars that one of the worlds that were about to be mined were attacked by an unknown species. Eight percent of the world’s mass was claimed overnight, leaving worthless grains of sand.

The Eldars who were guarding that world had all died from that upheaval, with only several technicians who had stayed in a Void observatory survived. They were all severely shocked as if they had seen something beyond their wildest imagination, the word ‘Behemoth’ being the only distinction out of their random utterances.

But that was not the end—things had barely begun.

Soon, the second, third through to the tenth alarm followed the first, each being worlds that had been developed, developing or where development was planned. They were all ambushed, their mass emptied… even uninhabited and worthless worlds were destroyed as well, with several ocean worlds drained of any water.

On star maps, it was as if a great shadow had reached in from the borders of the galaxy, invading the Eldars’ territories incessantly, leaving emptiness behind, just like grasslands consumed by locusts.

In the hour of need, the Eldars gathered all their naval forces—however, the lack of foreign adversaries left their forces lacking relative to their civilization. Still, although there were less than hundreds of middle to small vessels made for show, the Eldars sent that only fleet to the vicinity of the shadow to repel the unknown foe.

And they finally learned what ‘Behemoth’ meant.

A vast horde of almost forty crab-shaped Void Behemoths had covered heaven and earth. They moved forward in silence, causing dimensional turbulences or even knocking worlds out of orbits.

The entire Eldar fleet did not even to compare a single of their appendages.

The Behemoths accepted neither communications, challenge nor resistance, merely responding to the Eldars with silence. They did not even take notice of the fleet’s suicidal attack, merely moving forward to claim resources of each world, one after another.

That single assault did not prove lethal to the Eldars. All populations along the Behemoths’ way were evacuated while they moved on in a straight line, storing all resources they could keep without pursuing the evacuating the Eldars.

Indeed, they were not attacking but simply passing by, causing destruction akin to a giant trampling over an ant hill, the sheer size hence overwhelming the ants. Luckily, they stopped halfway through in the Eldars’ domain, seemingly having obtained sufficient resources and headed for the edge of the galaxy once more.

Millions of Eldars had died in that single disaster, and left a marked effect on their race: They finally realized that there were other powerful civilizations in the vast galaxy, and that they escaped description of terms such as ‘friendly’ or ‘hostile’.

More than that, without power, the strong would never even notice the weak’s hopeless retaliations much less calling upon them. ‘They’ had simply passed by and vanished from the inscrutable edge of the galaxy. Whether the outcome was ruin or helpful, it mattered not to them.

That was why the Eldar race had forcefully developed Void technology, investing their nation’s forces into combat armada. After centuries of continuous progress, even if the powerful creatures or foes they anticipated never came, the doctrine of fleet development became entrenched into their tradition that a great Void navy had taken shape presently. In fact, they were firmly convinced that they would at least not be disadvantaged or helplessly vulnerable if they encountered the Void Behemoth horde again.

It was also due to that centuries-old incident that the Eldars were ever vigilant, and always tried their best to collect information about the planets and galaxy around them so that they would not be attacked without precedence once again… Certainly, they got nothing over the last few hundred years since they remained a race from a fringe galaxy, and that the worrying state of the Multiverse prevented other civilizations from sending out fleets to explore some galaxy near the edge.

Then, just as the Eldars gradually became remiss and no longer studied the stars, a checkpoint near the Eldar Imperium’s borders dispatched a vague alert to the Central Hive.

“…Praise be to the name of Queen Kaliya, twenty-fourth generation of the Awakened… checkpoint Number 937 had spotted a very faint mystical fluctuation…”

“…spreading with extraordinary energy levels and spreading in a leaping sequence in the depths of the Void. Our technicians and equipment could not trace the source of the fluctuation…”

“…It’s not an error caused by aging equipment—it is definitely an abnormal mystical signature compounded with unusual psionic streams. Requesting advanced observation apparatus…”

The emergency notifications did not receive much attention across the Imperium initially. Although local technicians emphasized that it was an error caused by old tools, the vague report and outlying data could not be used to formulate any sort of judgement—even the authorities of the technical department suspected that it was an excuse made by the checkpoint workers who simply wanted more funds.

Either way, the incident ended up a small pebble thrown into a lake that did not stir many ripples. Be that as it may, all Eldar authorities were left in shock later when similar alerts echoed from every border checkpoints of the Imperium.

“…Our instruments detected unusual energy signatures not known to any familiar systems…”

“…Our acoustics caught a bizarre subs-space echo originating from an unknown point deep in the silent Void…”

“…The echo proved to be faint but getting stronger as time passed. It appears that something is nearing our galaxy…”

“…We could not correctly identify the range but the origin point is confirmed to be the depths of the Void. Present explanation is that due to usual silence in the Void, any abnormal energy ripples at the depths could cause widespread resonating waves…”

“…The technicians can’t explain the cause. It’s an unprecedented phenomenon. However, we are still studying present data—hoping for advanced technological support…”

Alerts from different checkpoints proved to have varied contents, but they essentially reported the same thing; each frontier checkpoint had picked up an unusual presence of unknown origins at the depths of the Silent Void, its cause being not known as well.

For the Eldars that lived on the edge of the Multiverse, the Void inside their galaxy was Normal Void, while the outer Void was called the ‘Silent Void’—it was because there were no other worlds on the outer reaches and was ever quiet, unaffected by any dimensional shift.

But now, with the Silent Void being no longer silent, heated discussions erupted at once within the Imperium’s technological department.

Aside from that, news of the signal reached the media and became the subject of various wild theories, such as new galaxies forming or the return of the mysteriously disappearing Behemoths from silence… Crazed speculations about what the signal was about hence kicked up across the Empire.

Many advanced equipment was at once supplied to the border checkpoints why the Eldar Imperium began to mobilize their fleet and conducting drills for what may be a new friend or a possible enemy. Either way, they were preparing for everything: from handling threats to diplomacy.

But in the end, the Eldars were a new empire. They might not be backward when it came to Void warships technology, but they were simply too weak in terms of information gathering, surveillance and Extraordinary ability.

One way or the other, the many civilizations, powerful Extraordinary individuals and advanced spacefaring races that spanned galaxies near the edge of the Multiverse all detected the same unusual signals.

Everyone heard that energy fluctuations and subspace echoes originating from the distant stars.