The Rainfather's Plague Scepter began to swing, and the long-gathering Nurglite torrent was about to be unleashed—a monstrous plague rain would soon fall, buying time for Ku'gath's evacuation.
He was confident that Nix would never sit idly by while these mortals and his descendants were engulfed by the rotting downpour.
The toxic cloud churned and expanded, the moisture in the air becoming so viscous it felt like a tangible mass. Nix looked up at the Rainfather in the sky; the other's intentions were clear in his eyes.
At first, the rain was as thin as cow hair, merely a prelude to Nurgle's deluge. Yet even such a tiny droplet could pierce the ceramite power armor watched over by the stars, leaving a hissing, rotting hole in the metal surface.
"Don't let it fall!"
As Yufu had anticipated, Nix temporarily handed Ku'gath over to Alsace and the others, and he himself confronted this catastrophe.
"Magnetic field rotation—250,000 horses!"
"Rapid-fire Bullet Fist!"
His fists became a blurred phantom, and the fist wind erupted like a dense volley. Each strike precisely deflected the falling raindrops, bursting them into clumps of rotten green mist in the air. Nix's remaining strength could no longer project a power field to protect the entire area; he could only use this most cumbersome and labor-intensive method of punching to maintain a safe zone for everyone.
"Haha... Nix, you are still too greedy!"
Ku'gath's voice sounded again, trembling with mockery.
"If you were willing to abandon part of humanity's burden, perhaps today you truly could take my life. But if you want to preserve everything, you are destined to hold onto nothing!"
Despite the efforts of Alsace and the others, Ku'gath, now nourished by the Rainfather's arrival, was still regenerating his body at a visible rate. The Plague Altar smashed into the ground, and the rancid shockwave forced the soldiers back. Then Ku'gath showed Nix the last thing he wanted to see—
A child who had been devoured and merged with that decaying giant body, whose soul was completely stripped bare, was presented before Nix's eyes.
Nix did not remember the child, but the child recognized him. It was one of the countless faces liberated from the Xenos Overlord's underground prison during the battle with Mortarion.
"Big brother, don't worry about us... He said there would be no more hunger, no more pain... But it seems we were deceived..."
"Do what you think is right..."
The child's words exceeded all expectations. Even Nix's vague memory had become that light which this child remembered in his short life.
But Ku'gath was not panicked; he knew that such a pure young soul would become the strongest shackle, preventing Nix from delivering a killing blow, forcing him only to watch as it departed into Nurgle's Garden.
"I said it long ago—the only victor in the end is my loving father!"
The arrogant laughter was like a dull saw, cutting back and forth across Nix's nerves. He had never felt such fierce anger, nor had he ever been burned by such a deep sense of powerlessness, his heart ablaze.
"Go shatter that damned toxic cloud over Barbarus! I'll take care of the rest. Do what you must, brother!"
Mortarion's voice was like a horn piercing through the fog, suddenly sounding at that moment. Nix had no time to judge, but the vile portal behind Ku'gath was humming and slowly opening.
"Magnetic field rotation—250,000 horses!"
"Explosive Space King Fist!"
A blinding golden current erupted from his fist, like retrograde thunder piercing the sky, followed by a fiery explosion that deafened the entire battlefield. The plague rain cloud condensed by the Rainfather Rotigus was torn into a massive rift and temporarily collapsed, requiring time to reconstitute.
And this fleeting rift was precisely seized by Mortarion and the ancient Ork, Bago. They leaped out simultaneously and charged directly towards Yufu.
The Pale Lord and the massive greenskin Ork exchanged glances—the absurdity of fate could not be more absurd. Mortarion never thought he would one day have to fight side-by-side with one.
"Leave it to me!"
The surging WAAAGH!! energy burst from Bago's sturdy body; his mouth, nose, ears, and eyes emitted powerful dark green energy flames, like a living volcano about to erupt.
"Brother Ba, give me all your strength!"
Mortarion gripped the Death Scythe, and the Pale King's gaze was like a chain pinning down the back of the Plague Fly. The next second, Brother Ba roared and brazenly lifted his three-meter-tall body, like a humanoid heavy cannon, hurling Mortarion into the sky!
WAAAGH!! The power field transformed into a furious green shockwave, tightly enveloping Mortarion, allowing him to break through the barriers of the corrupting clouds and push against the plague winds.
Mortarion had never felt so dominant!
The pale meteor, shrouded in green flame, crashed into the Rainfather with decisive inertia. This was airspace that required the stars' watch, and simply getting close came at a high price, but at this moment, Mortarion had arrived alone. The surging Ork energy roared around him, bringing a primal, arrogant, and all-consuming feeling of violent force.
Meteor fall!
The terrifying kinetic energy knocked the enormous Plague Fly, along with the Rainfather himself, from the filthy sky straight down to the ground, leaving a crash trail several kilometers long.
Ku'gath's attempt to evacuate was fixed in place. The scene before him exceeded his most absurd expectations—the father's special envoy had been suppressed in such an absurd manner.
"Impossible... How could Rotigus...?"
True panic, like a cold dagger, pierced his already rotten innards for the first time. A fatal crack had appeared in the plan.
"You cannot leave, Ku'gath!!"
Nix's roar drowned out all the clamor of the battlefield. The long-suppressed anger finally burst through all rational levees, transforming into the purest and most brutal killing intent. He had never felt this anger so clearly—not for victory, but simply to end the rotten life before him.
The golden current was no longer restrained; it erupted from his fists like an explosion, the light as fierce as the core of a supernova. This strike, carrying the desire to shatter everything, was launched with a thunderous roar.
The target was not only Ku'gath, but also the portal forming behind him into Nurgle's Garden.
BOOM——!!!
At the point of the fist strike, the structure of reality itself seemed torn. The portal, emitting a bright and filthy light, was like glass struck by a heavy hammer, shattering inch by inch in a piercing, mournful cry, transforming into distorted psychic light splashing across the sky. And the massive body Ku'gath had barely regenerated, like carrion struck head-on by an invisible hammer, disintegrated and splattered again.
"AAAAAAHHHH——!!!"
A cry of pain tore from Ku'gath's broken mouth. But what made him tremble more than the intense pain was the pure and terrifying killing intent in Nix's eyes. This killing intent was enough to incinerate his soul.
Nix did not stop; the second strike was already gathering power, the golden current of death coalescing into his fist. This strike would end it completely.
An inch before the fist was about to touch Ku'gath's remains—
It stopped.
Not because strength waned, nor because of external obstruction. It was because Ku'gath had raised the most repulsive and effective shield at the last moment.
The child's soul was pulled forth again, suspended between the carrion and the destructive energy. Immediately after, a second, a third... Countless weak points of light emerged from various pustules on Ku'gath's body, struggling and converging into a gloomy mist of light. These were the souls of mortals he had devoured and digested, the sacrifices of countless people promised peace but suffering eternally.
Ku'gath was silent; he simply pushed the mist of light, woven from agonized souls, towards Nix's fist. The intent and cruelty were clear: If he died, these souls would not be freed, but would be completely torn apart in the turbulence of the Empyrean, reduced to absolute nothingness in his final moments.
The air, between the ultimate killing intent and the ultimate vileness, froze.
Ku'gath had made the worst possible choice. This time, even if Nurgle himself came, he would not be able to take him back.