They reached the Heart-Spore, a massive, throbbing bulb of flesh at the center of the world's root system.
Sitting inside the translucent membrane was a woman who looked like she was made of woven orchids and bone. Her hair was a trail of stinging tentacles, and her skin was a map of glowing, bioluminescent veins.
[TARGET: THE MOTHER-OF-PLAGUES (RANK 9 - THE BIOLOGICAL VOID)]
"The Feeder has come," she said, her voice a chorus of a million rustling leaves. "I saw your fire on the Machine-World, Kane. I felt the Gardener die. You bring the Steel... but Steel can be bent. Steel can be melted."
"And your vines can be burned," Kane stepped forward, his shadow eating the glowing moss at his feet. "I didn't come here to talk about gardening. I came to offer you a Feast."
"A feast?" She tilted her head, her orchid-eyes narrowing.
"The Hegemony," Kane said. "A trillion souls made of pure, orderly light. Too clean. Too perfect. They've been pruning you for a thousand years, keeping you in this cage. If you join me, I'll let you turn their entire 'Golden Sector' into a compost pile."
The Mother-of-Plagues stood up. The ground beneath her shook as the roots of the entire planet tightened.
"If I leave this world," she whispered, "The Gardener's replacement will arrive. They will use the Omega-Virus. They will turn my children into liquid."
"Let them try," Kane raised his hand, and the Revenant appeared in the sky above, its Void-Steel cannons glowing. "I have the ship that can hide you. I have the steel that can shield you. All I need is your Venom to kill the gods."
The Queen reached out a clawed, flowered hand. As she touched Kane's obsidian skin, the "Hunger" and the "Plague" merged.
[SQUAD EVOLUTION: THE VOID-PLAGUE INITIATED] [DOC RANK-UP: RANK 9 (PEAK) - THE BACTERIAL ARCHON]
"Very well, 14th Iteration," the Queen hissed, her vines wrapping around Kane's arm. "Show me these 'Golden Souls.' I want to see how they scream when they turn into soil."