Hearing Nurgle's words, Mortarion was already running his thumb along the corruption-soaked blade of his scythe.
Who exactly qualified as his sibling? Siblings were figures like Guilliman. Like Sanguinius. Primarchs of genuine stature. In his eyes even the Great Unclean Ones did not rise to his level.
Mortarion was deeply unhappy. Profoundly unhappy. But defying Grandfather's command was not something he was prepared to do. So he had already made up his mind. He would find this so-called sibling, remove all four limbs, reduce them to a limbless trunk, and deliver them to Grandfather's feet.
Injuries of that scale would heal in an instant under Grandfather's blessing anyway.
So Mortarion was in a very bad mood. An exceptionally bad mood.
.......
At the top of the fortress, Zhou Ye stood with the modified Abyss White Bloom in hand.
Wither Authority spread outward through the black barrier encasing the perimeter. The Rainfather's rain fell, every trace of plague in it killed by the black wither energy, then blessed again by the Authority of Creation on the other side. The result was rain that actively accelerated healing. This process was subtle enough to be essentially invisible from the inside, and with none of the Warp whispers or other accompanying corruption that would raise alarm, even the Astartes who noticed something unusual would not be able to locate the source of it.
This was still Zhou Ye holding back considerably. His Authorities were not anywhere near fully released. If he let them go entirely, everyone present would see exactly what the Death Guard were about to fight, and they could put down their weapons and simply compete against the zombie horde on regenerative capacity alone.
He still had not confirmed the full extent of what was coming. So he kept his output as low as he could while keeping the barriers active.
This was not yet the moment to show his bottom card. And the situation was genuinely stable.
Supplies were more than sufficient. Draining an entire planet's tithe in a single extraction was not a figure of speech. The Tech-Priests who had accepted three STC templates in exchange for covering that tithe were going to need a little time to scrape together the physical materiel. Not that it was beyond them. Just a matter of logistics.
Zhou Ye's estimate was that he could hold a siege here for a year or two without serious difficulty. And in a year or two, he did not believe Nurgle could afford to stay patient. This operation was being run quietly. Nurgle's entire goal was a stable anchor point in realspace from which to eventually claim five hundred worlds. To make himself, for a measured window of time, the most powerful among the Four.
"They have refused the blessing's gift.... No. Something about those things is wrong. Everyone prepare to assault. Take down the false Emperor's servants. You, take a squad and probe their defenses."
In the plague column, the Death Guard Astartes had noticed that something was off. They could not work out what had happened. Why had Grandfather's blessings failed entirely. There should have been more people crossing over to their side by now.
The Death Guard company captain issued his orders to a squad of subordinates. Go test the enemy, feel out their combat strength.
On the fortress line, soldiers filled the interlocking trenchworks in every direction, weapons firing in continuous bursts.
A proper defensive position had more than one layer. The Imperial Fists Dreadnought Ancient had laid out a labyrinthine network of interlocked trenches with multiple withdrawal routes embedded into the design. The Governor's fortress-palace was the anchor, but a single strong point was never the plan. Every trench was meant to become a meat grinder for anyone who forced their way in.
The one thing grating on him was the fellow battle-brother beside him who had not stopped offering his opinion, suggesting that the trenches should be used as fluid assault positions and that the proper move was continuous forward pressure. He had not acted on the urge to silence this brother only because brotherhood restrained him.
"The traitors are here!!"
Someone called it out, and every head turned. Emerging through the plague zombie columns came shapes: bloated silhouettes moving in and out of visibility. Death Guard.
Traitors who had sold themselves to Nurgle.
In that instant every Star of Trailblaze Astartes on the battlefield felt the same thing at once.
Especially the group that had been so silent for so long that most people had started to wonder if they were simply inanimate. Now a profound fury erupted out of them.
And then...
"They have lost their minds!!"
Volvok, also on the front line, stared in disbelief. He watched that entire group leap out of the trenches. They went straight at the bloated, rotting enemy in open ground, weapons blazing on both sides.
He watched several of them take shots that should have been immediately fatal. They were back on their feet in moments, still engaging. The sheer volume of life force behind it left the Wolf pups blinking.
Why did their tactics look so familiar. Oh. Because they were identical to the Death Guard across from them. Well, that was fine then.
Wait. Identical to the Death Guard?
In that instant Volvok found himself struck by an extremely specific realization. These were Death Guard. And why exactly did they have more robust regeneration than the actual Death Guard? The plague-swine were going down and staying down. These ones were still putting out damage.
This was also connected to Zhou Ye's modifications. He had built them from a Nurgle-lineage template. So when he had modified their Gene-seed, he had added a measure of the Authority of Creation.
Which gave them an extraordinary regenerative capability. At minimum, in realspace, comparable to Nurgle's blessed warriors.
Whatever Volvok had noticed, the Death Guard across from them could not have missed it.
"Brothers across the line. What are you doing. Why will you not come to Grandfather's embrace. Father is here. Brotherhood is here. There is endless joy here, and the fragrance of the Garden."
The squad leading the probe was clearly composed of warriors who were too young, or simply not well-enough informed about the Great Heresy of long ago.
They felt it. A kindred presence in the aura coming from the other side.
These warriors across from them were battle-brothers. So the leading Death Guard immediately called out.
But then....
"Get lost. You plague-swine!!"
The Luna Wolves company commander's voice cut across the field, and everyone went briefly still. The Wolf pups who had been about to ask their Dreadnought Ancient what this was all about looked completely lost. Star of Trailblaze Chapter, could they all talk like this?
"You who have prostrated yourselves before festering filth. You have forgotten what honor is. Your degenerate Gene-Father has no idea what you have become. Go and make him come here and face us. Tell your Gene-Father Typhus to get over here!!"
"...What?"
"...Hmm?"
"...Huh?"
The Lamenters, the Wolf pups, and the Death Guard across from them went silent at exactly the same moment.
Their Gene-Father was not Mortarion. So what in the galaxy was Typhus doing in this sentence.
"Oh for the love of.... They have been infected by me."
On the other side of the field, Zhou Ye pressed a hand over his eyes.
He had been planning to step in personally. But now that he actually looked, the private additions he had packed into their Gene-seed had produced something in every one of them. Each of them had developed their own particular talent.
He had already thought the Contemptor Dreadnought Ancient weeping alongside a group of Lamenters was about as Tzeentchian a development as things could get. He could not have anticipated that the group who had been so relentlessly quiet he had started to wonder whether they were capable of speech at all would open their mouths to do something this spectacularly Tzeentchian. Getting a Gene-Father wrong was something virtually inconceivable for any Astartes in history.
But for Zhou Ye himself....
What? The Death Guard's Gene-Father was not Typhus? Was Mortarion not just their first captain?
"Fine. This is also part of the plan."
Zhou Ye pressed his hand more firmly over his eyes. He could not bear to watch.
And then, as expected, the Death Guard across the field exploded.
"This is blasphemy. Heretics!!"
---o---
Author's PS: All four updates are done. I have been adding a meaningful amount of words to each chapter specifically so you do not have to call me a cliffhanger dog. So consider my generosity. Feel free to call me long and thick!!