Chapter 126: Romantic Trazyn (Patreon)

At that moment, Trazyn felt everything around him freeze — time, space, everything.

This was a suspension of time and space unlike anything Necron technology could achieve — it came from neither science nor psychic power, but from something far higher.

Trazyn couldn't put a name to it, but the feeling was unmistakable.

Then a figure wrapped in ice crystals appeared, a lotus blooming behind it. In that single instant, Trazyn felt an overwhelming urge to prostrate himself in worship.

At the same time, watching Trazyn gave Heydrich a stomachache of his own. The sight of this fellow reminded him of a certain machine-intelligence brother, and then of that absurd, wildly exaggerated rumor about a romantic Lokhust.

And on top of that, this guy…

"Since he's already set foot on a Path, I might as well grant him some blessings. As for what comes after, he can figure that out on his own. Pity he'll never become a Pure Child of Anāsrava."

Even as he thought it, Heydrich silently scoffed — becoming a Pure Child of Anāsrava was out of the question. This one's soul was fundamentally incomplete; the priority was simply to make it whole again.

As for what had originally become of the Demiurge — that was a case of some four thousand cycles of reincarnation being forcibly restored by his own future self.

"I'm putting the task of collecting the Path of Remembrance across the entire universe in your hands. I hope we never need it, but just in case…"

Even as he said this, Heydrich was thinking to himself — after all, whether in Warhammer 40K or in the traditions of Western religion, there was always talk of an End Time.

Heydrich had never believed in any End Time, nor did he carry religious anxieties. But since this was Warhammer 40K now, he needed to prepare for it regardless.

Trazyn had genuinely gathered nearly every major event and memory of this world across the past sixty million years. Given that, he made an excellent backup.

So Trazyn froze for a moment — and then his eyes went wide.

He felt as though everything about himself had been stripped away; the detached indifference he'd always carried had simply vanished.

A sensation that belonged only to the living began flooding through him — though he did carry a bit of psychological trauma from being tormented by a certain machine-intelligence brother.

So instead of remaking him into a Men of Stone the way he'd done with Pearl and the others, Heydrich took a cruder, more direct approach — granting him a state similar to Black Swan's, the so-called memetic body.

While he was at it, he restored the man's soul to completeness and pulled it back out of the Warp. As long as this one didn't go and pick a suicidal fight face-to-face with the Dark Gods of the Warp, there'd be no problem.

And even if he did, all Heydrich would need to do was cut him free — so really, nothing to worry about.

Besides, given how practiced this fellow already was at transferring his own consciousness, this new state actually suited him better.

So Trazyn felt his soul and body split apart entirely, and then, through a reflective screen, he saw a middle-aged human.

Ignoring the pink hair, he was actually a rather handsome older man.

"Sky Father, Path of Remembrance — to gather and record every memory of this universe…"

Even as he rubbed his temples, Trazyn's mind began rapidly sorting through that immense wealth of memory.

First came everything about being tied to the Path of Remembrance, along with his duties. Soon an excited grin spread across his face — he realized his new task didn't conflict at all with what he'd always enjoyed, and on top of that, it came with the feeling of being alive.

Sour, sweet, bitter, spicy, salty — he felt his taste buds coming alive, and he could still use his various bodies to teleport rapidly, just as before.

In other words, he could now be even more shameless and brazen than before. For him, this was pure improvement — so long as he avoided directly touching those dark powers.

And he could feel that his soul truly belonged to him now — it wasn't sitting exposed in the Warp.

"My lord, what—"

Just then, the frozen time and space around Trazyn resumed its flow, and his servant stared at the middle-aged man with a look of shock.

He had no idea why a space Necron had turned into a middle-aged man, but the soul-bound seal told him exactly who this was.

Besides, having served Trazyn for generations, he already knew a great many secrets of the universe — and just how terrifying it truly was. That was precisely why he was so glad to keep following him.

After all, this was essentially a job with top-tier insurance, free food, free housing — everything covered. That kind of position was rare even in the modern day, let alone in the age of Warhammer 40K.

Not to mention, Trazyn never sent them into danger — whenever something risky needed doing, he handled it himself.

"Hahaha, good, very good, perfect. Go and prepare me a lavish meal — so this is what it feels like to be alive."

Trazyn savored the changes within himself with growing excitement. Right now, all he wanted was to eat a huge meal.

Meanwhile, back in the Cryptus System, Heydrich opened his eyes once more. Sure, people always say Remembrance Walkers are pink-haired,

but there's no need to overthink it — the Black Swan, the Garden of Recollection's own Remembrance Walker, certainly isn't a pink-hair herself.

Still, just before he left, Heydrich — with a rather nasty sense of humor — dyed Trazyn's memetic body's hair pink.

"Pity, though — right now, a single Path still isn't enough to sustain the power drain of an Emanator. But it hardly matters. For anyone who's set foot on a Path, this is still an enormous boost."

After all, his own Paths were still just miniature versions of the originals — nowhere near enough to reach Star Rail's Emanator tier. Still, it was more than enough to greatly strengthen his Walkers, and given enough time, an Emanator-tier existence would eventually emerge anyway.

Take himself, for instance — where he had once only been able to glance across those nearby, he could now cast his gaze clear across the entire universe.

Guiding Trazyn onto the Path of Remembrance had turned out to be a major boost for both of them.

"With this overall strengthening, I should be able to hold my own against the Daemon Primarchs now without much trouble."

Even as he savored the change within himself, Heydrich reflected that Trazyn's limitation here was simply the Path's overall strength.

If this one ever made it into Star Rail proper, he could very well become an Emanator-tier Remembrance Walker almost instantly.

As for becoming a Pure Child of Anāsrava, though, that was almost certainly out of reach — Pure Child of Anāsravas were, after all, candidates for the Aeon of Remembrance itself.

"Mimi…"

Just as Heydrich was thinking this, Mimi came flying straight out of him. His brow twitched at the sight — the little creature should have still been back in his craftworld, not tagging along with him.

She could attach herself to him before, sure, but never manifest across such a distance directly.

"I see — so as the Path of Remembrance grows stronger, a lot of the special abilities tied to being a Memory Spirit, or a memetic being, are starting to surface. But…"

He scratched his head at the thought. The other Labyrinth Sprites were one thing, but Mimi was his own Memory Spirit — and he remembered the entire story of Amphoreus.

So when he'd created her, he'd drawn on the whole of Amphoreus's memories to bring her into being. In other words, this little creature might well be Cyrene herself — nothing like Pearl or the other similar 'jokes' he'd made purely for his own amusement.

But if that were true, then somewhere down the line, she might genuinely become an Aeon.

After all, back in Amphoreus, the seat of the Aeon of Remembrance had essentially been hers for the taking, if Cyrene had simply been willing to claim it.

"Ah, well, no point overthinking it. The Path's still too weak right now — no need to dwell on it."

With that, Heydrich put the thought aside, rubbed the little furry head, and said,

"Go get ready to collect memory fragments here. The death toll in this war won't be small, but make sure to sever any Chaos corruption."

Heydrich reminded her again, because he'd noticed that after pulling Trazyn in, this being's sixty-million-year-long career had instantly widened the Path of Remembrance by a huge margin.

It had, in fact, become the most complete of all the Paths currently in his hands, which meant it now carried strong self-cleansing and resistance capabilities. As long as he kept a normal watch on things, there'd be no real problem — nothing to worry about.

"Mimi…" At Heydrich's words, Mimi turned into a bubble and vanished — clearly off to set up her contingencies.

"War…"

Watching Mimi disappear, Heydrich left the rest room and made his way back to the command center.

By now, as time wore on, the star's light was slowly sinking below the horizon.

At the same time, the Tyranid swarm's assault had temporarily ceased, leaving behind nothing but dense, mountainous heaps of corpses.

After a full day of probing attacks, the Tyranid swarm hadn't broken through even a single line of defense.

That wasn't because the Tyranid swarm was actually weak — it was simply that this attack had been made up of Termagants and Hormagaunts, the most basic Tyranid units. There hadn't even been any Tyranid Warriors, which could rival a Space Marine in combat. They'd simply thrown bodies at the gun-lines to probe them, plain and simple.

"Today's attack is over for now. Go get some rest — it'll do the front-line troops good to relax a bit too. I'll get food supplies sent up shortly, and have someone bring flamers to burn those corpses."

Surveying the scene before him, Heydrich said this to the exhausted-looking general beside him.

The Tyranid swarm — or rather, the Great Devourer — was clearly adjusting its strategy now, mustering its resources to produce mid-to-high-tier units like Tyranid Warriors, Lictors, and Executioners.

Which meant tomorrow's assault could be expected to be genuinely terrifying. And Heydrich knew the swarm's three signature tactics all too well.

Overwhelming frontal numbers, tunneling ambushes from below, and — in classic Warhammer fashion — glorious Boarding Actions.

With the large number of Titans he'd deployed, a frontal push would be difficult now. As for the glorious Boarding Actions, he'd also stationed plenty of Space Marines at key positions.

As for a direct Boarding Action, if the Great Devourer were willing to commit that heavily, Heydrich would honestly welcome it. After all, the Tyranids' highest-tier unit was the Norn Emissary, and he wasn't afraid of that thing in the slightest. In fact, he wouldn't even need to lift a finger himself — Titus and Akurduana, backed by his Palace Guard, could cut it down without issue.

After all, Titus's future record already included killing a Norn Emissary, and his strength now surpassed that of an ordinary Custodes. True, Titus had needed a squad of Ultramarines to bring one down, but that same beast had also once slaughtered a squad of Custodes — before being personally finished off by Captain-General Trajann.

So the main thing Heydrich needed to guard against now was the Tyranids' tunneling attacks — and those were genuinely difficult to defend against.

After all, in the original Battle of Baal, there was a recorded instance of these Tyranids tunneling straight through ceramite flooring. Even an Iron Warriors Warsmith's fortress world had once fallen to the same trick — absurd as that sounded.

But given the sheer numbers and efficiency these bugs brought to tunneling, it really wasn't something you could just deal with easily. As for dropping gravity bombs on the ground — forget it. Low-yield ones barely did anything, and if you cranked up the yield, you'd risk launching an entire continent into the sky.

What's more, the Hive Mind never used these three tactics one at a time — it ran all three simultaneously. Backed by that terrifying numerical advantage, if even one of them succeeded, the defenders could collapse outright.

"How's the deployment of the seismic sensors coming along? I need you monitoring for underground anomalies around the clock."

With that, Heydrich turned to Viktor beside him. Viktor's sole task for the day had been to install a large number of sensors throughout the hive — anywhere underground tremors might appear.

That way, they could confirm the bugs' tunneling points and send in the appropriate forces to seal them off and wipe them out.

War rarely came down to some single decisive masterstroke — more often than not, it was just both sides trading counters.

That was even truer at a scale covering an entire planet. So from the very start, Heydrich had prepared for the Hive Mind's three signature tactics — he'd even brought along a large number of Blackstone obelisks, ready to activate the Soul-Banishing Death Field against psychic power if the need arose.

"They're already placed at all the key points, and according to our readings, we've detected anomalous activity at ten distinct locations at least. Those are likely Tyranid digging squads. Without Genestealers guiding them, though, they're digging blind."

At Heydrich's words, Viktor pulled out a data-slate. As his fingers flew across it, ten red lines could be seen advancing rapidly beneath and around the hive.

Thanks to Jimmy — specially built for Tyranid signal jamming and search-and-hunt — Heydrich had already cleared out the bulk of the Genestealers hiding in the hive over the past few idle days. Too few remained to form an anchor point, which was exactly why the swarm's current operation was such a mess.

All they could do now was trade quantity for quality and force the attack through.