Warhammer Fanfic: Starting with a Core Cabin

"You actually killed them all..."

Looking at the city hall littered with corpses, the elf scout was momentarily speechless. Her original plan had been for Duanmu Huai to create a frontal diversion while she used the underground sewers to rescue the captives—then figure out a way to help Duanmu Huai retreat safely.

She hadn't expected this black knight to be so ruthless, directly wiping out every last Skaven and evil god cultist in the building.

"Why leave them alive when you can kill them all?"

Duanmu Huai appeared entirely calm. The Skaven's average level was under ten—basically like mowing grass for him. Of course, while it was fun to crush enemies, the downside was the pitiful experience gain. With such a wide level gap, each Skaven only gave him a single base experience point.

Hmm... at this rate, if I kept farming Skaven for 300 years, I might just reach LV99...

"But that's good. We managed to get some intel."

At this, the elf scout lowered her voice.

"These Skaven didn't attack Silver City just for fun. They came here searching for a certain holy relic. Their goal is to corrupt it and plunge this land into plague and decay."

"Oh... not surprising."

Duanmu Huai remained calm at the revelation. While the behavior of the four evil gods' followers varied, their methods still followed recognizable patterns.

Followers of the God of Tyranny thrived on war, slaughter, and death—sacrifices offered up to please their god. Followers of the God of Decay spread disease and plague, viewing them as a form of their father's "mercy." Followers of the God of Trickery loved conspiracies, backstabbing, and elaborate plots. And the God of Desire's cultists reveled in twisted pleasures and perversions.

According to the elf scout, this time their target was a holy relic called Water God's Gift, an artifact with the power to purify water sources. Naturally, for any human settlement, such a relic was immensely valuable.

The evil god cultists had attacked Silver City with the goal of capturing Water God's Gift and using the God of Decay's power to transform it into a biological weapon. Once corrupted, tossing the relic into any water source would spread the God of Decay's "fatherly love" to every lifeform downstream.

"Such a relic should be heavily guarded, right?"

"Exactly." The elf scout nodded. "The Empire dispatched high-ranking mages to cast layers of protective enchantments over it. Only members of the royal family can even touch it. But no one knows if that's enough—if the Decay demons are strong enough, they might still break through."

"So, what we need to do now is reclaim the temple and protect the relic?"

"Yes. I've already sent word to Lord Cardo to inform him."

Hearing this, Duanmu Huai frowned, pausing for a moment in thought.

"I've been meaning to ask—what about reinforcements? Do we have any?"

"...Hard to say."

"What do you mean 'hard to say'? Isn't Silver City part of the Empire? If it's under attack by evil god cultists and barbarians, with the ruling lord already dead, isn't requesting Imperial aid the obvious move?"

"That's correct, but humans have their share of dirty politics too."

The elf scout's tone clearly carried some dissatisfaction, and Duanmu Huai could guess it was mostly due to power struggles... but now wasn't the time to waste breath on such matters.

"Then let's act. Let's try to reclaim the temple and protect the relic as soon as possible. As for those troublesome matters, we can discuss them later."

For Duanmu Huai, the empire's political turmoil had nothing to do with him.

His primary purpose for coming to this planet was to find the Order relic lost in this world and bring it back to the core module. As for everything else, he would deal with it as needed, but wouldn't get too deeply involved.

After all, Duanmu Huai's goal was the sea of stars. A civilization still stuck in the medieval era wasn't worth too much of his energy.

"Just you alone?"

"And her."

Duanmu Huai pointed to Olgis silently following behind him. During the previous battle, Olgis had remained hidden on the sidelines, and it was the same now. She was Duanmu Huai's final trump card—he wouldn't deploy her unless absolutely necessary.

"You really are decisive..."

Hearing Duanmu Huai's reply, the elf scout sighed, then made up her mind.

"I'll go with you two. At least I'm familiar with this city and can guide you both."

"That would be helpful."

In the elf scout's view, Duanmu Huai's behavior was reckless and overly aggressive—but Duanmu Huai knew he was simply ensuring his own survival in the face of an approaching crisis.

And this related to the background of Star Sea Online.

Once upon a time, long, long, long ago, humanity had established a grand empire that ruled the entire galaxy, driving out all alien barbarians. People lived in prosperity, peace, and unimaginable glory.

This era was known as the "Golden Age."

But then everything took a sharp turn for the worse. The artificial intelligence that had faithfully served the Golden Age suddenly rebelled, infected by a mysterious electronic virus. The entire era collapsed almost overnight.

Although the machine crisis was eventually quelled, humanity was left severely weakened. To make matters worse, a terrifying warp storm erupted around the same time, disrupting space travel and communication.

This was a devastating blow to human civilization.

After all, for any advanced society, transportation and communication networks were essential. During the Golden Age, people used warp channels to travel across countless light-years to reach distant planets, and also used warp communications to stay connected.

It was, in simple terms, like a vast interplanetary railway network—serving both for travel and messaging.

But when the warp storm broke out, it was as if those rails were completely shattered.

Humanity lost the ability to contact its distant colonies, and warp travel became unreliable. Ships would get lost in the storm, vanishing without a trace for reasons no one could explain.

Because of this, human civilization at that time was already in grave danger, teetering on the brink of destruction. At that moment, a mysterious being stepped forward. He led humanity in resisting the final crisis and once again guided them toward glory.

He was known as humanity's leader—the Emperor.

After uniting the human civilization of the Solar System and consolidating their power, the Emperor took advantage of the warp storm's recession and launched a fleet-led expedition known as the Great Crusade.

Its purpose was to reclaim the galactic colony planets that had lost contact with the human homeworld during the warp storm. At first, the Great Crusade was a resounding success, with humanity reclaiming most of its lost colonies.

However... good times didn't last long.

Just as the Great Crusade was nearing its end, another warp storm erupted. As if history were repeating itself, the Great Crusade's fleet was divided and scattered within the warp.

Cut off from the homeworld, unable to contact the Emperor, they became stranded.

But the warp storm was only the beginning.

What followed was a massive rebellion—the Warmaster, who had been entrusted to lead the crusade in the Emperor's stead, turned traitor and launched a revolt.

Much like the machine crisis of the Golden Age, humanity once again found itself betrayed from within. Though the Horus Heresy was eventually suppressed, the human Empire was left severely weakened—and the Emperor vanished without a trace.

Afterward, the human Empire was plagued by continuous divisions, wars, chaos, and attacks from alien races. Humanity won again and again, only to fall again. After countless millennia, someone finally proposed a radical and terrifying plan:

The Black Hole Project.

In the eyes of its proponents, the root of all the Empire's suffering lay with the evil gods of the warp. But destroying the warp gods outright was nearly impossible.

As previously mentioned, the warp was the projection of all sentient souls and emotions across existence. That meant unless all living things in the universe were annihilated, the evil gods could never truly be destroyed—only delayed. Even if defeated, they would eventually resurrect.

However, the warp wasn't invincible.

All forces in the universe have counterforces. The warp produced psykers, but psykers also had natural enemies—beings known as "Untouchables."

The cause of their existence remained unknown, but what was clear was that Untouchables were the only beings in the universe without a presence in the warp. They were like walking black holes within the warp.

Their very presence could disrupt or sever the connection between psykers and the warp, nullifying their power.

Of course, this also made Untouchables hated by other living beings. They were like soulless entities, and their very existence provoked discomfort and loathing in all around them.

Yet it was from the Untouchables that the concept of the Black Hole Project was born.

In short, these visionaries attempted to create a massive "void" in the warp—large enough to disrupt the entire warp's power structure.

Even if they couldn't kill the Chaos gods, they could at least deal them a catastrophic blow.

It was like a doomed country on Earth choosing to launch a nuclear strike in its final hour.

If I'm going down, I'm taking you all with me. Even if I die, I'll make sure you suffer too.

Killing 800 enemies at the cost of 1,000 lives would still be worth it.

What they did was essentially press a cosmic reset button—purge the entire universe, and then… leave the rest to humanity's survivors.

The Black Hole Project was a monumental success.

The warp nearly collapsed, and the evil gods were all forced into slumber by the devastation. Without divine protection, other alien civilizations were also critically weakened.

In essence, humanity's indiscriminate strike knocked every cosmic race back to the Stone Age—forcing a restart of galactic civilization.

But of course, the evil gods were not content to remain dormant.

They continued to seduce followers through various means, urging them to work harder—to awaken them sooner than others.

This was the world players awoke into: the "Dark Age."

Their mission was to disrupt the evil gods' plans, delay their awakening as long as possible, and build up their own strength to eventually confront them—and, if possible, eliminate them once and for all.

Otherwise, when the evil gods returned in full force, all that awaited them would be despair... and death.

What he needed to do now was destroy the God of Decay's plan!

(End of this chapter)