Chapter 963, The Spirit Race Surrenders

Chapter 963, The Spirit Race Surrenders

This is the first time Gu Hang has viewed the relationship between the human empire, the alliance, the emperor, and the Storm Kingdom from the perspective of another warp deity.

Of course, this structure only appears this way in the 'eyes' of the Thousand-Faced God, and does not represent the reality.

When observing subspace, different perceptions will naturally lead to different results.

But this also reveals part of the relationship between the four from one perspective.

It’s actually quite interesting.

At the same time, Gu Hang roughly understood the God of a Thousand Faces' demands.

"You want me to help you, and you also want the entire alliance to help the Eldar?"

"We...beg you..."

The voice that had been speaking earlier, dominated by the cold and icy tone of Mensa, changed to a gentle female voice.

That is the will of Windsor.

It guided Gu Hang's gaze through the fog covering the stitched structure of itself as a thousand-faced god, and frankly revealed all its secrets to Gu Hang.

There, at the center of a vortex formed by the desperate sobs of countless Eldar souls and the agonizing disintegration of the gods themselves, an extremely tiny structure appeared.

This is a 'divine core' forged from the very concepts of pain and death, forcibly refined amidst the dying screams of countless fragments of gods. Its fundamental purpose is singular: to forcibly weld the processes of "acquiring the extraordinary power of the Eldar" and "absorbing the pain of the Thousand-Faced God" together.

"This is a curse... and also a last resort..." Windsor's will helplessly explained the significance of this divine core, "If the entire Eldar race's access to extraordinary power had not been anchored to this divine core, the Eldar race and we would probably have perished long ago..."

"In the past, this structure, like a rusted iron lock, temporarily protected the Eldar from being completely consumed by Chaos, but it also nurtured the infiltration of Shamaen like a poisonous petri dish... Now... it is on the verge of collapse..."

Gu Hang remained silent.

At this point, he naturally understood perfectly what the God of a Thousand Faces meant by needing help.

What He wanted was a way to bypass this critically endangered divine core and provide alternative energy channels for the Eldar.

And this method, naturally, is the vast network of the human empire.

If Gu Hang were willing, the blue network built upon the golden network, with its double reinforcement and filtering, could completely provide a temporary spiritual haven for the souls of the Eldar. When Eldar superhumans extract power, their mental turmoil would be further 'filtered,' reducing the degree to which they would be affected by Slaanesh's infiltration, and this corruption could be borne by humans.

Although it still exists, its scale is small and negligible. Humans are far more resilient; they are already constantly being watched by the four gods and corrupted everywhere, so they don't care about a tiny bit more Slaanesh corruption.

More importantly, unlike the Eldar, human souls are not condemned to the Dark Prince's realm of lust after death, so they are not afraid at all.

In this way, the burden on the God of a Thousand Faces will be greatly reduced, giving him a precious chance to breathe and repair himself.

However, it first explained the predicament the Spirit Race gods encountered, then the solution, and confirmed that Gu Hang was capable of helping... but the most crucial point was never mentioned.

Helping the Elven race, is it without cost? Is it without benefit?
Gu Hang asked the question directly.

He calmly and clearly pointed out the nature of the deal and the enormous crisis lurking behind it: "Slaanesh will never allow the Eldar, whom it has always coveted and considered its prey, to be spared. He will not rest in peace; he will surely launch a furious revenge..."

What Gu Hang said is definitely a huge real problem.

Humans are not afraid of the extra bit of corruption; but what impact will Slaanesh's frenzied counterattack have?
It is foreseeable that the Chaos factions that worship Slaanesh will act madly; Slaanesh will unleash wave after wave of corruption, and the probability of Slaanesh cults proliferating within the Alliance will increase dramatically...

The former implies higher military costs, while the latter implies greater internal governance costs. Behind both inevitably lie massive amounts of imperial bloodshed and endless [imperial sacrifices].
And after all that, what will the alliance and Gu Hang gain?

After a brief silence, Windsor conjured up a new vision.

In a corner of a galaxy, at the edge of the defensive perimeter of an Imperial Guard regiment, surrounded by Orks and nearly driven to despair, an eerie silver light suddenly flickered in the air. The next second, a group of howling banshee warriors, clad in spiked helmets and appearing like a dance of death, materialized from the phantom. Their star-dart spears precisely reaped the ugly heads of the Orks to the astonishment of the Imperial soldiers!
A powerful Imperial capital ship, possessed by the demonic possession of Tzeentch, has its internal navigation star map inexplicably altered, and deadly warp currents threaten to plunge the ship into disarray. But then, on the bridge, the human navigator looks up blankly, hearing a soft, incomprehensible whisper that reassures him and guides him in the right direction.

On the Comoros, all the ports were operating at full capacity. The Eldar and humans worked together, and the technologies inherited by the Dark Eldar were not hastily destroyed because of their defeat, but were put to use, sending human fleets through the Veiled Spirit Gate from one end of the universe to the other.

In the warp, waves of purple Slaanesh surged towards the Storm Kingdom, crashing against it wave after wave. Yet, Windsor and Mensha remained steadfastly at the forefront of the fight against these waves. And as time passed, the number of Eldar gods standing alongside them would grow. The fragments slumbering within their divine cores would have the opportunity to be pieced together, becoming whole again, and transforming into new allies…

The God of a Thousand Faces emphasized that everything shown was not just speculation, but a projection of future possibilities.

A clear and enticing path lay before Gu Hang: if humanity could provide such temporary spiritual havens, even if they were merely temporary and fragile anchorages, it would win precious living space and breathing room for the Spirit Race's Ark worlds, the Dark Spirit Race, and the Thousand-Faced God.

These Ark Eldar and Dark Eldar, while still alive, will operate in a way that is highly suited to the Empire's current needs—they will become reinforcements for the Empire in its battle against the common Chaos enemy.

Although their numbers are small, their more advanced technology, stronger individual combat capabilities, and more stealthy mobility will make them particularly effective in many situations.

Their ancient knowledge, which even surpasses that of the Empire, will flow like a trickle, playing an incredible role in shifting the strategic balance in the most critical areas, such as the navigation of Imperial ships and the restoration of medical relics.

Including the Thousand-Faced God himself, after His situation improved, He awakened more 'faces', that is, those shattered Eldar gods. They themselves could serve as powerful allies and play a very good role in the warp.

Slaanesh's wrath may not always be directed at Gu Hang. As the Eldar gods rise to power, Slaanesh's troubles will only intensify. This will significantly alleviate the immense pressure on stabilizing the foundations of the real universe, which are constantly being shaken by chaos.

After revealing all this, the God of a Thousand Faces didn't say much, but his attitude was already very clear.

Whether it's the Empire, the Alliance, the Emperor, or Gu Hang, humanity is certainly capable of independently confronting all enemies. The malevolent gods of the Warp, the Orks and the Zerg Swarm in the real universe—these are the true foes humanity can handle on its own. That's no problem.

But there is another path to choose from.

The Eldar can be good allies, not enemies.

Humanity doesn't have to shoulder all of this alone; humanity can also have allies.

What the Eldar really want is not much.

Please help resolve the ongoing corruption by the Slaanesh and allocate some resources and several worlds so that the Eldar can survive.

That's it.

For humans, these are nothing more than casual actions.

As for Slaanesh's furious counterattack... In fact, even without this incident, even if they didn't help Eldar, would Slaanesh not have attacked humans? That's not the case.

None of the four gods can escape the wrath they inflict upon humanity. Whether or not this event occurred, the two sides are irreconcilable mortal enemies.

They clearly share the same enemy, and they could have avoided conflict, so why insist on annihilating the Undead race?
This is the honest attitude that the God of a Thousand Faces has shown.

All the decisions rested in Gu Hang's hands.

After much deliberation, Gu Hang made a decision.

He laid out his conditions:
"Comoros is part of the alliance."

"On the spine of every Eldar Ark, the mark of this promise must be etched."

"Your divine core will be handed over to me for control."

All these conditions ultimately point to one result:
If the God of a Thousand Faces attempts to break the agreement after self-repairing, or even worse, if He ultimately cannot resist the ultimate corruption of Slaanesh and completely transforms into a chaotic festering sore threatening humanity, then Gu Hang will possess the ultimate means: a single command to detonate all the extinction marks imprinted on the core of the Eldar Ark.

That will no longer be a battle, but a physical erasure of the entire remaining Eldar civilization!
At the same time, it also means the complete erasure of the God of a Thousand Faces.

If Gu Hang wanted to, all of this would become a reality without any cost.

A once dominant race in the universe will see its final glory fade away with a single thought from Gu Hang.

This perfectly aligns with Gu Hang's consistent requirements regarding the Comoros and the Dark Eldar:

Unconditional surrender.

However, this scale has now expanded even further.

The demands were not limited to the Comoros, but also included the Eldar, who had little to do with the war, and the Many-Faced God behind the two Eldar.

Faced with these conditions, Windsor's response was swift and decisive:

"Ok."

Gu Hang was somewhat surprised, yet felt that it all made sense.

If the God of a Thousand Faces hadn't been prepared for this, He wouldn't have come to see me today.

As for whether giving everything to humanity is a good choice, and whether they are afraid that Gu Hang could simply wave his hand and utterly destroy them...

There's really no need to overthink it.

Why did Gu Hang do that at this point?

If we could completely control the two Eldar, the gains would obviously be greater than destroying them.

Instead of completely destroying the Eldar, why not just enslave them?
Highly qualified personnel, powerful cannon fodder, and superior technological capabilities... What's wrong with having such a large group of 'slaves'?
As for whether they are worried that Gu Hang might actually implement such a system of slavery... there's really no need to think about it too much.

The fact that the God of a Thousand Faces can make the choice he is making now means that he, and the entire Spirit Race, actually have no other choice.

They have only two options: either, a thousand years later, when the gods can no longer hold on, the entire race, regardless of whether they are Ark Eldar or Dark Eldar, will be sent to the Palace of Slaanesh to be eternally enslaved by Slaanesh.

Alternatively, they can choose to be 'enslaved' by humans.

There are no other options.

Now, perhaps for individual Eldar, there is still the option of not choosing anything and simply dying; but for the Eldar race as a whole, there is not even the option of destruction.

Once the divine core is corrupted, the remaining Eldar, whether alive or dead and their souls preserved in soul stones/soul boxes, will all be the same—toys for Slaanesh.

When Gu Hang reached an agreement with the God of a Thousand Faces, and when the old woman returned to Comoros, just three standard Terra days later, the Dark Eldar of Comoros declared their complete and unconditional surrender to the Alliance.

(End of this chapter)