Chapter 121: Warhammer: Lord of the Endless Monster Horde [121]

"You're truly generous! Lord Loki, we'll do as you say!" Kania nodded and said. He was deeply envious of the ice beast warriors and dragon-type beast warriors produced by this method of enhancing beast soldiers. Over the past few days, he had also visited major arenas to watch the battles of these beast warriors. These beast warriors, even without armor, could completely rival Chaos Space Marines and ordinary Space Marines. Their combat power was incredibly formidable. Logically, this should be classified as a core confidential technology, yet Lord Loki had agreed to it so readily. Seven monster enhancement potions—surely at least one of them would succeed! "Agreed, then. Let your Tech-Priests begin the ritual!" Rhodes nodded and said. "Leave it to us! Tech-Priests, begin your work." Kania nodded and looked at the Tech-Priests behind him, giving the command. The Tech-Priests nodded and began their ritual. First, they took out a large number of candles, placing dozens of them in front of each suit of armor. Then, they brought out boxes of incense, placing them in front of each suit of power armor. Finally, they opened a massive iron chest, releasing more than seventy mechanical cherubs with wings. Each cherub was assigned to a suit of power armor. "Servitors, kneel! Begin chanting the sacred hymns!" A Tech-Priest raised a steel scepter high and commanded. A large group of servitors, whose frontal lobes had been removed, immediately knelt on the ground, clasped their hands together devoutly, and began to pray. "Praise the great Omnissiah! Praise the Machine God!" "Praise the great Omnissiah! Praise the Machine God!" "Holy machine spirit, hear our prayers! Awaken from your long slumber in the darkness!" The five Tech-Priests took out their portable incense burners, shaking them as they walked among the power armor suits, chanting under their breath. "Master, will this... awaken the machine spirit? Is this how a soul is born? Such a bizarre ritual!" Balt spoke up. He had thought he was about to witness some high-tech procedure, but to his surprise, it turned out to be a group of people mumbling prayers and casting spells. Even Salome, standing nearby, felt a bit speechless. She had been looking forward to something impressive, but now she doubted whether this ritual could create a machine spirit. Five eccentric, cybernetic individuals leading a group of puppets—was this enough to make a suit of power armor develop a soul? It all seemed too far-fetched. "Not entirely useless, though. Haven't you noticed? Those cherubic, winged mechanical constructs and the flying skulls aren't ordinary electronic creations," said Zett, eyes closed as he observed the servitors and cherubs in flight. Their movements weren't following pre-programmed patterns but seemed spontaneous as if guided by a form of self-awareness. "Exactly. That's the machine spirit! It's different from AI. While its computational power isn't as strong as AI, it surpasses artificial intelligence in certain other aspects," Rhodes explained. The biggest advantage was that these machine spirits would never betray their masters—they were extraordinarily loyal! The only exceptions occurred when someone overloaded a suit of armor with modifications, causing multiple machine spirits to inhabit a single suit, leading to conflicts and minor malfunctions. "Praise the Machine God! Praise the Omnissiah!" The servitors' hymns grew louder and louder. The cherubs flying through the air opened their mouths and began singing songs dedicated to the Machine God. Time passed slowly. Before long, night had fallen. The Tech-Priests had been performing the ritual for several hours. They diligently lit candles, burned incense, and carried out various awakening rites, moving between Rhodes' power armor suits. Despite their peculiar behavior, the Tech-Priests were quite disciplined. At least they didn't take this opportunity to secretly inspect or dismantle Rhodes' power armor to examine its internal structure. "Lord Loki, if you're getting impatient, I suggest heading upstairs to wait. This ritual will likely take a long time," Kania said. The machine spirit awakening ceremony was a time-consuming process. Waiting here might take until the morning. Moreover, one of Lord Loki's three servants piqued Kania's curiosity—specifically, the female servant. Two of them appeared to be normal Eldar, but the female servant was somewhat unusual. She was a human dressed in a blue military uniform! How strange. A human serving an ancient Eldar faction? And she showed no signs of mechanical augmentation. This meant she wasn't part of the Adeptus Mechanicus, yet she stood here as a scientist for an Eldar faction! How advanced were this woman's scientific abilities? "Alright, we'll wait upstairs. Balt and Zett, you two stay here and keep an eye on them. Salome, come with me." Rhodes nodded and left the basement with Salome and Kania. After the two had seated themselves in the living room, Rhodes began to speak. "Mr. Kania, you seem quite interested in this beautiful scientist by my side, don't you?" From the moment Salome appeared, this rogue trader had been staring at her. This time, Salome didn't bother with any disguises and revealed her true appearance—a beautiful human woman. Although she was a Salomean, her physiological structure and appearance were indistinguishable from that of a human. Rhodes had intentionally allowed Salome to maintain her human appearance because she was going to play a key role in the upcoming plans, particularly when it came to repairing the Golden Throne. This time, Salome was serving as his chief scientist, and she was the real deal—a true expert. "Please forgive my rudeness, Lord Loki. I was being too presumptuous," Kania said, bowing slightly, thinking he might have offended Rhodes. "Hahaha, it's fine! Her name is Salome, and she's one of my family's chief scientists. I remember your rogue trader fleet also has quite a few non-human members—for example, the Corsairs," Rhodes replied. He recalled that when playing as a rogue trader in the past, there was a romanceable female character from the Eldar in the storyline, who even shared a deep spiritual connection with the protagonist. After the protagonist naturally passed away from old age, she finally left. "Hahaha, that's true. We rogue traders do take in some non-human allies," Kania said. He didn't feel the need to deny it. After all, the Eldar members were indeed strikingly beautiful, especially the women. Even if one could only admire them from afar, there was still a sense of accomplishment. "My appearance may look human, but my bloodline is far from it. Don't get the wrong idea," Salome said. What a joke—she was a noble Salomean, even if she happened to look identical to a human. "Ms. Salome, generally speaking, unless one undergoes special disguises, one's appearance usually reflects their bloodline. You might have some human ancestry," Kania remarked. Humans had been exploring the galaxy for tens of thousands of years, and many had undergone genetic mutations. Could this woman be an undiscovered sub-species of humanity? "We humans also have some sub-species, like the Skaven and other hybrid or mutated humans. Perhaps you have some human ancestry. Would you like me to perform a genetic test for you?" Kania offered. He simply couldn't believe that this stunning woman in a blue uniform wasn't human. A species that looked completely identical to humans? Impossible! Even the most human-like alien species, such as the Elves, still had distinctive features—pointed ears, slender physiques, and vastly superior physical abilities. In this galaxy, it was inconceivable for a Xenos species to emerge that looked exactly like humans. "Sure, go ahead and test me! I'm not human," Salome said with a smile, plucking a strand of her hair. Kania promptly retrieved a genetic testing device—identical to the ones Elena and Atoria had used to test Rhodes' genes before—and placed the strand of hair into the device. A flash of light swept across the genetic tester, followed by a green glow. The results even left Rhodes somewhat surprised. Salome was 100% pure human! "It seems you may have some misconceptions about your identity! Genetic comparisons don't lie—you're human, and your genes are remarkably pure," Kania said as he looked at the genetic test results. Even Salome herself was stunned by the results. How could this be?! She was a Salomean! How could she possibly be a human? Sure, her species looked identical to humans, but this—this was ridiculous! "Yes, Salome is indeed human," Rhodes said with a smile. Rhodes had known about Salome's human bloodline for a while. When he first summoned this beautiful woman, he had been curious and secretly collected a strand of her hair. He had asked Elena to test it, and the genetic comparison revealed that—it was pure human DNA. Allowing Kania to discover this truth was intentional on Rhodes' part. He hadn't informed Salome in advance, just to see her surprised reaction.