Its experience of being infected by Warp energy forced the Great Devourer to take the Warp more seriously. It had no desire to let these so-called Warp gods interfere with its emotions and consciousness.
But to oppose such gods at a fundamental level, it would need a similar conceptual presence in the Warp. It could no longer appear as a vast, indistinct shadow.
With its profound understanding of the Warp, the Great Devourer had three authorities to choose from: greed, propagation, and gluttony. Whenever it wished, it could use its powerful, immense Tyranid Swarm to shape a divine avatar in the Warp.
Yet these authorities meant constraints as well as power. It would no longer be free to evolve in every direction as it pleased. Divinity would erase emotion, erase motivation, erase change. Gods were powerful, but viewed from another angle, they were also pitiful.
After pondering for a long time, the Great Devourer abandoned its plan to ascend into a Warp god.
It intended to observe for a while longer and find a better solution. Or it could wait until the Warp posed a tangible threat to the Tyranid Swarm as a whole. Ascending then would not be too late.
The Screw Clan's attack on the Tarrok System was a more immediate, practical problem. The Tarrok System was too close to the Octaria System-close enough to affect the Great Devourer's overall strategy.
Sending more Tyranid Fleets to the Tarrok System to pin down the Screw Clan was not feasible. The fighting in the Octaria System had reached a critical juncture as well. On the system's principal planet, Octaria III, the Great Devourer's swarm was fighting the Ork forces in a final decisive battle, both in the skies and on the ground.
Wielding a massive Power Klaw, the Ork Great