Chapter 309: Nurgle's Depression
A top-secret message was immediately delivered to Guilliman on Terra. When he saw the news mentioned by Lucan, he was once again silent. Each shock Lucan brought him was more intense than the last.
"If the Panacea is truly what Lucan says it is, then doesn't that mean Nurgle's plagues are no longer a fatal threat? He will provide the solutions and production methods for free, but he will charge separately for other genetic therapies?"
Just as Lucan had thought, Guilliman immediately grasped its value. Guilliman's orders were instantly relayed to the newly reorganized Administratum. The popularization of the new administrative system had increased the efficiency of the Terran Administratum by a countless measure.
However, Guilliman did not just send the data and samples of plagues and diseases recorded by the Imperium as Lucan had requested. He also sent all the records of genetic flaws that the Adeptus Mechanicus had discovered from the gene-seed tithes collected from the various Chapters. Although many Chapters' genetic flaws had become a part of their identity, even relatively benign mutations still caused great trouble for them, to say nothing of the truly fatal variations.
It was just like the minor mutations that had been repaired in Gabriel's genes, which had been caused by long-term combat with Chaos. Some loyal Chapters, likewise due to prolonged exposure to various warp entities or other unknown reasons, had developed mutations at the very root of their gene-seed. Just like the psychic instability that plagued the Blood Ravens, these mutated Chapters suffered greatly. If this unresolvable genetic mutation reached a certain point and could no longer be hidden from the Inquisition or the Adeptus Mechanicus, they could be declared traitors or heretics, and their entire Chapter's charter could be revoked.
The deployment of Custodes carrying Primaris gene-seed to the various Chapters had not been going that smoothly. Not everyone was willing to accept it, nor was every Chapter willing to accept the new Primaris marines, and many of the new-bloods were ostracized. But if Guilliman could help some Chapters solve these malignant genetic mutations, he could push the process forward more quickly and gain the support of those Chapters.
Most importantly, after his return, Guilliman had been reviewing the Imperial history he had missed and had seen the records of the Penance Crusade in M37. An entire thirty loyal Astartes Chapters, their gene-seed stocks corrupted by a Chaos plot, had been declared Fallen by the Imperium. They were given a choice: either die, or march directly into the Eye of Terror and fight until death. Almost all thirty Chapters chose to enter the Eye of Terror. They either died in battle or fell to Chaos. It was a massive, free gift of troops to Chaos.
If the Imperium had possessed the Panacea at that time, perhaps such a thing would never have happened. Now, the Imperium's suppression of Chaos had reached an unprecedented level. Guilliman did not want such a tragedy to happen again.
Faced with these additional requests, Lucan did not refuse. He would be the good guy to the end. He ordered Pavian to raise the priority of these gene-seed issues.
Within the Gardens of Nurgle.
At that moment, Nurgle was at his cauldron, brewing a new plague. Faced with the resurgence of the Imperium, he did not share the anxiety and worry of the other three Chaos Gods. War could be calmed, desire could be suppressed, and change could be stopped. But plague and disease would forever accompany almost every sentient creature in the universe. His power might not be the most intense influence on the material universe, but it was certainly the most widespread. There was hardly a single planet in the Imperium that could escape the troubles of disease and pestilence. And all of these were Nurgle's source of power.
Furthermore, his fleet, which had been banned from the Battle for Cadia by Lucan, had been preserved almost perfectly. He was now creating a new plague for this fleet. He didn't need to fight the humans head-on. He just needed to spread the plague, and he would not be at a loss. The power projection of the other three gods in realspace had been greatly reduced by the battle for Cadia. Nurgle was preparing to use this gap to spread his own corruption as much as possible and gain more power. The Imperium had never had an effective counter to the plagues created by his divine power. Before acquiring the Panacea, Lucan also had no effective way to stop a planet-wide plague.
Sensing that the plague was finished brewing, Nurgle slowly ladled out a bowl of the thick soup. Smelling the stench emanating from the bowl, Nurgle seemed very satisfied. This was one of the most satisfying plagues he had developed recently, created using the Zerg corpses his daemonic legions had killed on Cadia and brought back. This plague was even effective against the Zerg.
Countless Nurglings cheered and danced around his body, as if celebrating the fact that the great Grandfather had concocted a new pestilence.
Carrying this bowl of reeking, toxic soup, Nurgle shifted his enormous body and walked towards a prison cell within his fortress. In an indestructible cage, one of the only two surviving Eldar gods in the galaxy was imprisoned: Isha, the goddess of life, fertility, and healing. When Slaanesh was born, and the Eldar gods fought against it, Nurgle had taken the opportunity to abduct Isha. With her divine authority, she had become Nurgle's best test subject for his plagues. Often, when a new plague was born, he would feed it to Isha first to test its effects.
Seeing Nurgle's arrival, the weakened Isha knew what she was about to face. She knew she had no room to resist. When the bowl of soup was placed in front of her, she could only pick it up.
Isha was not just passively accepting her fate. When she drank the toxic soup, the plague would torment her body and soul. But at the same time, she would use her divine authority to find a cure. In all the years she had been imprisoned, she had already accumulated a vast number of plague cures, but she had no way to send them out.
However, just as Isha was about to forcing down the disgusting soup as usual, a loud CRACKING sound, loud enough to echo through Nurgle's entire domain, reached both their ears. This sudden change made Isha drop the bowl. The soup spilled all over the floor and began to corrode it.
Isha looked at Nurgle. This was the first time she had ever seen an expression of worry on his face. Nurgle, paying no more attention to Isha, rushed back to his plague cauldron. The cracking sound seemed to be tormenting every daemon in his realm. The Nurglings, who were usually always giggling and optimistic, now showed expressions of terror. They gathered around the plague cauldron, looking at their Grandfather in horror.
When Nurgle returned to his cauldron, he saw that the very cauldron that had birthed countless plagues, the very manifestation of his divine power, had a visible crack in it. Although the cauldron was not destroyed, the plague soup that had been stewing for countless years was slowly leaking out. Even Nurgle had never encountered such a situation.
He immediately sensed a change in the material universe. The countless plagues he had unleashed upon the galaxy were beginning to change... and this change meant that humanity had mastered a way to cure them.
Divine power is a conceptual power. While powerful, it is also bound by conceptual constraints.
At that very moment, Cawl and Pavian were using the Panacea to find one solution after another for his deadliest plagues. And every time humanity mastered a cure for one of his plagues, that plague's influence in the material universe would begin to decline. This feedback immediately affected Nurgle.
This act of "cutting the root" had shaken the very foundations of Nurgle. The ever-present smile on his face vanished. It turns out that joy doesn't just disappear; it simply transfers to someone else.
He still didn't know that humanity had acquired the Panacea. But the Four Gods had now reached a consensus: whenever something that violated the laws of reality happened, it was definitely related to Lucan.
Nurgle had no solution right now. The only thing he could do was to continue brewing even stronger plagues to spread throughout the galaxy to make up for his losses. At the same time, he began to have his followers investigate what had happened.
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