Just as Warand was preparing to lead his forces in retreat, the Tyranids seemed to sense their intention.
Their already-ferocious offensive shifted into a tightening encirclement—
a clear declaration that they intended to leave no one alive.
And although, in terms of pure casualty ratios, even wiping out the entire Tyranid vanguard wouldn't guarantee the destruction of Warand's troops…
The Tyranids simply did not care.
For a species that bred in tens of trillions every few seconds, even the loss of billions was not a strategic concern.
Thus, this "mining detachment" that had clashed with the Warriors of Light threw itself forward with suicidal ferocity, determined to inflict as much damage as possible before dying.
Under this relentless assault, the pressure on the forces of the Light Nation grew rapidly.
Casualties climbed.
--
The Light Nation categorized its warriors into four tiers:
Lower Warriors
Middle Warriors
Upper Warriors
Super Warriors
Super Warriors were said to approach the power of the first Progenitor—Noah.
In over hundreds of thousands of years of history, only four or five had ever appeared.
Among Warand's current force, the strongest were only several dozen Upper Warriors.
Lower Warriors comprised 80% of the troops, and though individually capable, they were vulnerable to massed Tyranid swarms without higher-tier support.
As Tyranid attacks intensified without regard for losses, each fallen warrior tightened the knot in Warand's chest.
He was moments away from requesting emergency reinforcements from the Light Nation when—
A massive green beam—tens of kilometers wide—shot in from afar.
Like a knife slicing through butter, it cut straight through the endless sea of Tyranids, parting it cleanly like the biblical image of Moses dividing the sea.
A path of shredded flesh and vaporized biomass opened directly toward the perimeter.
Though he did not know who had intervened, Warand did not hesitate.
He led his warriors into the passage and broke through the encirclement.
After a short but desperate flight, the remaining Tyranids were shaken off.
And then—
Emerald-lit starships emerged before them.
From the most magnificent vessel, a tall figure in ornate regalia stepped forward, blade in hand.
He introduced himself:
"Mighty travelers from afar—you may address me as the Silent King."
---
On the Tyranid Side
Frustrated by their failed pursuit, the Tyranids began sweeping the battlefield.
They ignored the corpses of their own species entirely—those were merely resources to be recycled.
Their focus was instead on the shredded remains of the Warriors of Light.
As they devoured the unfamiliar luminous flesh, the Tyranids forcibly extracted the strange genetic essence within—
the Power of Light.
With biotech advanced enough to challenge even the Eldrazi hordes, Tyranid bio-theft organisms immediately began reverse-engineering the Light-bearing genome.
As the data accumulated and implications became clearer, the Hive Mind itself diverted additional attention toward this region…
---
Days later, on a Tyranid world:
Rows of colossal, mucus-covered sacs—dozens of meters tall—throbbed like grotesque hearts.
Thick, grey radiance clung to their surfaces like congealed sludge.
With a sound like tearing flesh, the sacs ruptured.
From within crawled nightmarish creatures:
humanoid skulls with dozens of eyes and fangs, bodies studded with randomly arranged limbs, and rows of valve-like vents opening along their backs.
The Hive Mind named these new creations:
"Fallen Luminaries."
They were the Hive's first-generation result from integrating the Power of Light.
Each creature weighed roughly 600 tons, could move at Mach 20 under normal conditions, and—when channeling Light—reach hundreds of times the speed of sound.
Every eye and limb could fire distinct photonic attacks, and groups of them could merge into a single greater entity—then separate again without loss of function.
The Hive Mind was satisfied… but not pleased.
The Light within these creatures resisted its control, as though alive.
Because of this, the Fallen Luminaries were only using a fraction of the Power of Light.
By consuming the brains of Light Warriors, the Hive Mind had learned that upper-tier and Super-tier warriors possessed exponentially richer genetic Light.
"I need more. More pure Light Warriors."
Tyranid swarms erupted outward like unleashed predators, scouring entire sectors to hunt their new quarry.
--
Meanwhile, after days of cautious interaction, Warand confirmed the Silent King intended them no harm.
As repayment for his intervention, Warand began sharing limited intelligence.
But the information delivered was so absurd, so terrifying, that even the Silent King's ancient mechanical mind stuttered.
After a long pause, he asked again, incredulous:
"You claim your nation was driven here by a creature whose eye alone spans tens of thousands of light-years?"
Warand nodded solemnly.
"Yes. And according to our calculations, its size has likely grown by a factor of twenty-three since then."
"…"
The Silent King silently calculated the mass of an eye of such size—
then the creature such an eye must belong to.
Either the entire Light Nation had gone insane…
Or this universe was far more absurd than even he had ever imagined.
...
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