Long Live the Advisor

A brief daze passed, then Rovi turned and commanded:

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

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

As if to confirm his words.

From the shadows at the edge of the plaza, a heavy footstep suddenly echoed.

"Thud, thud, thud."

The sound wasn't like human steps—more like chunks of rotting meat slamming heavily onto the ground.

The swarm of flies scattered by the heavy machine guns, as if summoned, madly converged toward that direction.

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 outfit of a senior overseer at Granary Seven.

But now, that uniform was stretched to shreds.

A gaping wound split his abdomen.

Inside, there were no organs.

Instead, clusters upon clusters of plump maggots writhed.

His left arm had become a keratinized bone spur.

Covered in green slime, it dripped incessantly.

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

Buck's terrified voice came through the comm channel. "Wasn't he reported missing last week?"

"He didn't go missing." Rovi stared coldly at the monster. "He just accepted the blessing of the Lord of Pestilence and became fertilizer for this garden."

This was the embryonic form of a Nurgle Plague Chosen.

Or rather, an Advanced Carrier.

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

With each breath, the pustules on the zombies already knocked down around it trembled violently.

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

Where the mist passed, the originally hard concrete ground began to mold and soften.

Clusters of nauseating Fungal Carpet sprouted.

It was changing the environment.

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

"Don't let it spread the spores!" Rovi barked. "All firepower, concentrate on the big one!"

"No good, Advisor!" Buck roared. "Bullets are useless on it. The fat's too thick—it's like a layer of Bio-Armor!"

Indeed.

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

They couldn't even make it take a step back.

It let out a low roar, then strode forward toward the defense line.

With every step, the Fungal Carpet beneath its feet spread further.

Despair began to seep through the Defense Force.

Facing supernatural terror, mortal courage was like a candle flame in the wind, ready to be snuffed out at any moment.

In times like this, Rovi grew even calmer.

Fear is the killer of thought.

He had to find logic.

Nurgle's essence was decay and rebirth, a twisted cycle of life.

Yet no matter how twisted.

It still followed the laws of the material world.

Biomass needs energy.

Viruses need carriers.

"Fire."

Rovi uttered a single word.

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

"0.5 seconds, Advisor."

"Good."

Rovi grabbed the communicator on the table and cut straight into the full-frequency broadcast.

"Everyone, cease fire!"

The order caught everyone off guard.

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

The stench was almost overwhelming.

"Buck, take your men and pull back twenty meters. Leave the trench you just dug for it."

"But..."

"Execute the order!"

The Defense Force was naturally confused.

But years of training and their reverence for Rovi made them instinctively obey.

They scrambled back, yielding the position.

The plague monster clearly wasn't very intelligent.

Seeing the enemy "flee," it let out an excited roar and sped up, plunging into the trench.

To it, this was just a shallow ditch—one step and it would be across.

What it didn't see was the bottom of the trench, coated in a layer of black, viscous substance.

That was waste scraped from the bottom of the Fermentation Tank.

Mixed with a large amount of industrial grease.

And waste Machine Oil drained from heavy machinery.

Rovi stood on high ground.

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

"Alpha, ignite."

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

With the Priest's cold voice falling silent.

Fifty modified Booby Traps buried on both sides of the trench were activated simultaneously.

"Boom!"

A muffled roar.

A crimson wall of flame erupted instantly from the trench floor, rising a full five meters high.

The grease mixed with waste Machine Oil burned at an extremely high temperature and had strong adhesion.

Like living serpents of fire, they crawled over the monster's entire body in an instant.

Burrowing into its gaping wounds.

Scorching the maggots and rotten flesh inside.

"Oww!"

The monster let out a piercing scream.

This was no longer a threatening roar, but the primal wail of a creature facing death.

Nurgle's blessing allowed it to ignore bullet penetration and feel no pain.

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

Fire was purification.

High temperature was truth.

The seemingly invincible monster thrashed wildly in the sea of flames, rolling, trying to extinguish the fire on its body.

The more it struggled, the tighter the highly adhesive burning agent clung.

Not only that, the heat also ignited the vast amount of biogas accumulated inside its body.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

A series of muffled explosions came from within.

That was the sound of its organs, its pustules, bursting under the heat.

Yellow-green fluid splattered out.

Before it could hit the ground, it was evaporated into black smoke by the flames.

Minutes later, the screams gradually faded.

The trench was left with nothing but a charred, smoldering wreck.

Clumps of the nauseating Fungal Carpet had also turned to ash under the searing heat.

The Defense Force and Laborers stared at the flames with lingering fear.

They couldn't believe the terrifying monster had been reduced to charcoal.

Until Rovi's voice rang out again.

"Clean up the battlefield."

"Use the Flamethrower to clear all remains. Don't leave behind even a fingernail-sized piece of flesh."

"Put all the ashes into lead buckets and bury them deep."

"Yes... yes! Hail the Advisor!"

Someone in the crowd shouted first.

Then cheers erupted like a tidal wave.

The wild joy of surviving a disaster.

And the worship of the strong.