Warhammer: Empire Reboot

He simply opened his mouth, which was now only half-open, and let out a roar towards the high platform.

"Losen!"

Across the entire Blackrock Plains, all the surviving Death Guards raised their heads.

In the Plague Fleet, the soldiers stopped reloading their weapons.

The commander on the bridge pushed aside his attendant.

Inside the landing pod, the Plague Warriors who had not yet entered the battlefield simultaneously turned around and looked in the direction of Mortarion's head.

Countless veterans roared in anger: "Losen!"

The roar echoed through public communication channels.

Each of the Death Guard warships simultaneously pushed its propulsion system to its limit.

Before he died, Mortarion ordered them to retreat.

As the most loyal heir, Vox should obey.

But my father is already dead!

Vox slowly lowered his hand that had been reaching for the platform, gripped his weapon again, and gave his final command.

"Remove all security restrictions!"

"Powered armor reactor overloaded!"

"All ships must abandon their evacuation routes!"

"All landing modules launched!"

"There is only one goal!"

Vox looked up and stared at Lawson on the platform.

"Kill him!"

The Death Guard launched its final charge.

The Plague Fleet also completely abandoned its tactics.

The battleships accelerated forward under the firepower of the Battle Moon, while the escort ships deliberately rammed into the Imperial Dark Side Fleet. All the corrosive torpedoes, landing pods, and biological warheads simultaneously slammed into the Seventh Blackrock Fortress.

Rotigos and Kugas were wildly swinging their weapons at the edge of the warp.

More wrecked ships were swept up by the storm, and more asteroids were dragged toward the battlefield.

All the power that the Nurgle faction had accumulated was lost at the moment Mortarion was beheaded.

They only want to kill Lawson!

They wanted to use the entire Deathguard, the entire Plague Fleet, and even all the Nurgle's power in the Eye of Terror to completely engulf that platform.

Lawson was not surprised at all; this was exactly what he wanted.

"Hang it up!"

"Yes, boss."

Er Gou wedged Mortalian's head into the pre-installed fixing device at the top of the Blackstone Pillar.

A pale head faces eyes filled with fear.

Like a flag belonging to the losers.

Below the platform, the roars of the Death Guards had become a continuous chorus.

"Losen!"

"Losen!"

"Losen!"

Lawson didn't look at it again.

From the moment those Death Guards set foot on the Seventh Blackrock Fortress, their fate was sealed.

None of them can go back.

What Lawson really cared about was something else.

The moment Mortarion was beheaded, the swarm mind not only intercepted his soul fluctuations as he tried to escape back to the warp, but also forcibly extracted a massive amount of memories from the Primarch's brain.

Most memories are worthless.

Resentment, failure, and millennia of self-justification occupy the largest part of Mortalian's consciousness.

Lawson had no interest in these things.

Swarm intelligence filters them out layer by layer, retaining only the spatial perception related to the Nurgle Garden.

Countless fragmented images reassembled in his consciousness.

A decaying forest, a river of disease, plague-laden fruit hanging from branches, a swamp that sinks and resurfaces repeatedly.

Nurgle Manor is hidden deep within the garden, surrounded by layers of realms that cannot be measured in real distance.

There is also an area that has been deliberately isolated.

There exists a life force there that seems out of place in the rest of the garden.

Warm and pure.

Even surrounded by countless plagues and corruption, it has not been completely extinguished.

Isa, the life goddess of the Eldar.

Mortalian knew roughly where she was being held.

More importantly, as one of Nurgle's most powerful Primarchs, he retained the path to the core of the Garden of Corruption in his memories.

Subspace does not have constant distances or stable orientations.

The same road may lead to different areas at different times, and a mountain peak may be in front of you or in the memory of those who enter.

What Mortarian remembered was a set of relationships.

Subordination relationships between areas of plague.

Which channels will open when the tides of Nurgle's will change?

Which diseases can serve as keys, and which corrupt rivers can bypass the Great Demon's guard and reach the depths of the garden?

One plan after another was formed, only to be rejected during the simulation.

The war outside continued, but Lawson stood on the edge of the platform, remaining silent for a long time.

Guilliman sensed something was wrong.

Lawson was clearly planning something else.

Moreover, this matter was so important that after killing Mortarion, he had no interest in even watching the Nurgle faction collapse.

"Is there some other plan you haven't told us?"

Lawson withdrew from the swarm simulation, glanced at Guilliman, and then looked at the Lion King standing on the other side.

"It's too noisy here, let's find somewhere else to talk."

The three left the high platform and appeared in a closed hall inside the Seventh Blackrock Fortress.

The outside artillery fire was immediately isolated by the black stone structure, leaving only the occasional slight tremors from afar.

A 3D projection rises in the hall, reconstructing the corrupt garden from Mortalian's memory using swarm intelligence.

The projection is unstable...

Forests, swamps, and mountains constantly overlap, and some roads that have just appeared will turn into a river full of teeth in the next moment.

When Guilliman saw that scene, his face immediately darkened; he had a bad feeling.

Lawson asked, "Last time, the Emperor used you to burn down Nurgle Gardens. How much of the route inside do you still remember?"

"No, I don't remember this place."

"Not a single memory remains?"

Guilliman explained, “I was afflicted with the plague of the gods in Iakx and was near death. What happened afterward was not under my control.”

He looked at the blurry mansion in the projection.

“My physical body remains in the material universe, while my consciousness or soul was dragged to the edge of the Garden of Corruption by Mortarion. Then, the power of my father descended through me.”

"I remember the endless golden fire, and I remember Nurgle's wrath."

"But it was more like a dream that happened while I was dying. I couldn't tell if the path I saw was real, and I couldn't get back into the garden based on those fragments."

The Lion King guessed Lawson's purpose simply from his question.

"You are to enter the Garden of Nurgle."

Lawson did not deny it: "I'll go in to take care of some business, and while I'm at it, I'll bring out the Spirit Race's Goddess of Life."

Guilliman seemed to doubt that he had misheard.

"Don't be impulsive, that's the Garden of Evil!"

"Nurgle Gardens is not a planet that can be attacked, nor is it a fortress that can be blockaded by a fleet. The Garden of Corruption itself is part of the will of Nurgle. Entering it is like entering the body of a Chaos God."

"This is too dangerous!"

He walked to the projector and zoomed in on the constantly changing route.

“There is no stable space here, no laws of the physical universe, and not even distances that we can understand. You may take a step forward in the garden and reach your goal, or you may be trapped in the same plague for thousands of years.”

"More importantly, how will your physical body travel there?"

"Material life cannot maintain its form in the warp like demons. Without the laws of reality to fix flesh and blood, your body will be reinterpreted by the warp. Thoughts, memories, and fears can all directly become wounds, diseases, or physical entities."

"Even if you possess the Black Stone, there is no guarantee that you can remain intact within the core domain of an evil god."

Guilliman rarely voiced so many objections at once.

He was really anxious.

Lawson's value in the empire far exceeds that of an ordinary commander.