Long Live the Advisor

After a brief moment of disorientation, Rovi turned and gave an order:

"Alpha, initiate Plan B. Have the 'Kais' server take control of all the Auto Turrets. Also, prepare to detonate the Incendiary Traps in the Eastern Trench."

"Those flies were just the prelude." Rovi pointed toward the churning darkness in the distance. "The real Gardener is coming in to reap the harvest."

As if to prove his words,

heavy footsteps suddenly sounded from the shadows at the edge of the plaza.

"Thud. Thud. Thud."

They didn't sound like human footsteps. It was more like chunks of rotting flesh being slammed heavily against the ground.

The whirlwind of flies scattered by the heavy machine guns seemed to have been summoned, swarming frantically toward the sound.

Then a massive figure emerged from the darkness.

A giant nearly three meters tall—

if it could still be called a "man."

He wore a tattered, oil-stained work uniform, the standard uniform of a senior overseer at Granary Seven.

But now the uniform had been stretched until it was in tatters.

His abdomen had split open.

There were no organs inside.

Instead, nest upon nest of fat maggots writhed within.

His left arm had become a keratinous bone spike.

Green slime coated it, dripping steadily to the ground.

"Is that... the Former Overseer Head, Old Huck?"

Buck's terrified voice came over the comms. "Didn't he disappear last week?"

"He didn't disappear." Rovi stared coldly at the monster. "He went to receive the Lord of Pestilence's blessing and became fertilizer for this garden."

This was the beginnings of a Nurgle Plague Chosen.

Or, more precisely, an Advanced Carrier.

It didn't rush to attack. Instead, it stood still, as if taking a deep breath.

With each breath, the boils on the Walking Dead already sprawled across the ground began to tremble violently.

Then they burst one after another, releasing a pale yellow mist.

Wherever the mist passed, the once-hard concrete began to mold and soften.

Clumps of repulsive Fungal Carpet sprouted across it.

It was changing the environment.

It wanted to turn this place into Nurgle's garden.

"We can't let it spread its spores!" Rovi shouted. "All fire on the big one!"

"It won't work, Advisor!" Buck yelled. "The bullets aren't doing a thing! It's got too much fat on it—it's practically wearing a layer of Bio-Armor!"

He was right.

The Logging Gun's bullets struck the monster, splashing yellow-green pus like blossoms.

They couldn't even force it to take a single step back.

It let out a low growl and charged toward the defensive line.

With each step, the Fungal Carpet beneath its feet spread farther.

Despair began to spread through the Defense Force.

Faced with supernatural horror, the courage of ordinary people was like a candle in the wind, liable to go out at any moment.

At a time like this, Rovi grew even calmer.

Fear was the enemy of thought.

He had to find the logic.

Nurgle's nature was decay and rebirth, the twisted cycle of life.

But no matter how twisted it became,

it still obeyed the laws of the material world.

Biomass needed energy.

Viruses needed a carrier.

"Fire."

Rovi said a single word.

"Alpha, what's the fuse delay on the Incendiary Grenades I had you modify?"

"0.5 seconds, Advisor."

"Good."

Rovi grabbed the communicator on the table and switched directly to the all-channel broadcast.

"Everyone, cease fire!"

The order left everyone stunned.

The monster had already charged to within fifty meters of the defensive line.

Its stench was almost upon them.

"Buck, pull your people back twenty meters. Let it have the trench you just dug."

"But—"

"That's an order!"

The Defense Force naturally didn't understand.

But long training and their awe of Rovi led them to obey on instinct.

They retreated in disarray, yielding a section of the line.

The plague monster clearly wasn't very intelligent.

Seeing the enemy "flee," it let out an excited shriek and charged faster into the trench.

To the monster, it was only a shallow ditch that it could cross in a single stride.

What it didn't see was that the bottom of the trench was coated with a layer of black, viscous sludge.

It was waste scraped from the bottom of the Fermentation Tanks,

mixed with a large amount of industrial grease.

There was also used machine oil drained from heavy machinery.

Rovi stood on high ground.

He watched the monster's clumsy body step into the trench, like a beast falling into a trap.

"Alpha, ignite it."

"Command confirmed. Praise the wrath of the Omnissiah."

At the Priest's cold voice,

fifty modified Booby Traps buried along both sides of the trench activated at once.

"Boom!"

A muffled blast rang out.

A crimson wall of fire surged instantly from the bottom of the trench, rising five meters high.

Once ignited, the grease mixed with used machine oil burned at an extremely high temperature and clung fiercely to anything it touched.

Like living fire serpents, the flames instantly climbed over the monster's entire body.

They wormed into its open wounds,

scorching the maggots and rotting flesh inside.

"Raaaagh!"

The monster let out a shrill scream.

This was no longer an intimidating roar, but the most primal cry of a living creature facing death.

Nurgle's blessing could make it ignore bullets piercing its flesh and keep it from feeling pain.

But it couldn't change the physical law that protein charred under high heat.

Fire was purification.

High temperatures were truth.

The seemingly invincible monster thrashed and rolled in the sea of flames, trying to smother the fire on its body.

The more it struggled, the tighter the highly adhesive incendiary clung to it.

Worse, the heat ignited the large amount of methane that had built up inside its body.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

A series of muffled explosions came from within it.

Its organs and boils were bursting in the heat.

Yellow-green fluid sprayed out.

Before it could hit the ground, the flames vaporized it into black smoke.

A few minutes later, the screams gradually died away.

Only a charred heap of remains continued to burn in the trench.

The repulsive clumps of Fungal Carpet had also turned to ash under the searing heat.

The Defense Force and the laborers stared uneasily at the blaze.

They couldn't believe the terrifying monster had been reduced to charred remains just like that.

Then Rovi's voice rang out again.

"Clean up the battlefield."

"Use the Flamethrowers to clear away every last bit of the remains. Don't leave behind a piece of flesh even the size of a fingernail."

"Put all the ashes in lead barrels and bury them deep."

"Y-yes! Long live the Advisor!"

Someone in the crowd shouted first.

Then cheers broke out like a tsunami.

It was the delirious joy of those who had survived disaster.

And the adoration of the strong.