Sevatar's story had barely ended when the grim mood inside the Viewing Hall began to lift, and the words on the screen quietly shifted.
[Next we will show why the Warhammer Universe is so dark.]
A cold line of forewarning tightened every heart.
[As mentioned before, gods exist within the Warp of the Warhammer Universe; let us now introduce them in turn.]
[First comes the gentlest of the Chaos Gods—Nurgle.]
"Gentle?"
Flash Barry Allen blurted out, face full of disbelief. "A gentle… evil god? Those two words together are like saying "a healthy disease"—they just don't fit!"
[Nurgle is also called Father or Grandfather, and he is essentially the god of life in the Warhammer Universe.]
"God of life?" Superman Clark Kent shot to his feet, blue eyes wide with shock. He thought of Krypton's Sun-god Rao, of every symbol of creation and hope on Earth.
"A Chaos God called both "Father" and "god of life"? That… that's blasphemy!"
Before his words faded, the text on the screen mercilessly continued.
[Nurgle rules despair, stagnation, Death, decay and entropy—symbols of the end of all things in the material realm.]
"Entropy…" Barry murmured. As a scientist he knew the weight of that word better than anyone—the cold law by which everything slides from order into chaos.
"They turned the natural Death of the Universe into a conscious being—into a god?"
[In a sense Nurgle can be seen as the god of everything, for no matter how enduring something seems, it will eventually rot away.]
"That is no god, it is a lie!" Wonder Woman Diana's voice rang out, firm with Amazonian resolve and fury.
"Life is growth, blossoming, struggle—not decay and stagnation! To wrap Death in love and disguise despair as destiny is the vilest deceit. Corrupting mortal souls with such a thing is crueller than any blade!"
Amid the fierce denials, only Batman sat silent in the shadows.
He felt neither rage nor shock; he was simply… analysing.
"Master…"
Alfred's voice sounded behind him, trembling faintly. "To call rot rebirth, to call plague a gift… what sick logic is that?"
Bruce finally spoke, his voice harsher than ever, each word seeming to carry the chill of the screen.
"That is precisely the most brilliant psychological manipulation, Alfred."
He looked at no one, eyes fixed on the introduction as if dissecting an unknown corpse.
"To those trapped in despair, wracked by illness, seeing no hope, 'despair' is their only reality. Then a 'god' tells them their agony is not meaningless, their rot a new form of life, their despair a blessing, and Death not the end but entry into an eternal 'family'…"
Batman paused; every gaze in the hall converged on him.
"It doesn't fight hope—it removes the very foundation, claiming hope itself is the lie. It makes you accept pain, embrace decay, and find twisted 'happiness' in despair. That is ten thousand times more terrifying than mere violence."
He leant back, melting into shadow, his final words sending an icy chill through Clark and Diana.
"Now I begin to understand. In a Universe where even the 'god of life' stands for decay and despair… someone like Sevatar is perhaps inevitable."
[Nurgle loves every life in the Universe, including the tiniest microbes; to Him they too are alive, so His followers become… something hard to describe.]
[See what Nurgle has prepared for His devotees!]
[The Destroyer Plague—tiny plague-flies crawl into every orifice to fill you with eggs; soon your body bursts with more plague-flies that swarm into everyone nearby. The disease can also spread by reading about it.]
[The Bone-Crack Plague—your bones begin to grow at random until you tear yourself apart or suffocate. A mild case.]
[The Two-Faced Worm—a hereditary virus spread by hearing the exact phrase: "The Emperor isn't real." Victims turn into zombies, then back into humans, then into adorable giant maggots.]
[Nurgle's Chosen willingly accept His countless diseases, letting Him transform them into bloated, shambling, rotting zombies who feel no pain.]
[Nurgle considers anyone tormented by His plagues to be His worshipper, so He generously bestows Chaos Blessings.]
[From the above you might think this is no god of life at all.]
[But the problem is, after catching these plagues you don't truly die.]
[The diseases coexist with you; you suffer their torments yet remain alive, for to Nurgle you are a living being and He will not let you perish.]
[Nor can you cure them—Nurgle will not allow His tiny lives to die, so you must coexist with the plagues forever, becoming part of Nurgle's Garden.]
[Of course, you don't need to worry about the pain these plagues bring—your common sense has already been twisted. You won't feel the slightest displeasure; instead, you'll spread these viruses with a smile, growing your circle of friends.]
On the screen, Nurgle's nauseating "blessings" and morbid "philosophy of love" continued to scroll.
Inside the command center of the Giant Gorge Ship, the atmosphere was stifling beyond endurance.
"Ugh… I think I'm gonna throw up."
Ge Xiaolun's face had gone white, one hand clamped over his mouth as he retched. He was still an ordinary Earth youth; even after becoming the "Power of the Galaxy," he couldn't stomach such images, physically or mentally.
"Insect eggs… broken bones… mutate from a single sentence? What the hell kind of god is this? This is more disgusting than the foulest curse!"
"This is no longer a war we can comprehend," General Du Kao said, voice heavy as lead. His eyes were glued to the screen, as though he could wrest the enemy's true nature from those words. "It isn't a genetic weapon, nor a biological one. It's rewriting the very definition of 'life.'"
"Exactly, General!" Leina—the goddess from Lieyang Star—had lost her usual pride and flippancy; in their place stood deep revulsion and vigilance.
"I am the Sun; I bring light and heat—the source of life! And this thing… it calls itself a god of life, yet it stands for rot and stagnation. It is my natural enemy! It isn't a god—it's the Universe's cancer!"
Meanwhile, far away in the Demon Nebula, Queen Morgana lounged with legs crossed, watching everything on a giant screen.
The twisted images and words made the smile on her face fade bit by bit. Her usual mockery and swagger vanished, replaced by a rare, icy silence.
"My Queen?" Beside her, Ato sensed the shift and spoke cautiously.
Morgana didn't answer. She simply stared at the screen—at those "smiling" believers in their rot, at that "love" called eternal torment. Suddenly she let out a choked, stifled whimper.
Crystal tears slid from the corners of her beautiful eyes, and Ato panicked. "My Queen! What… what's wrong?"
"Shut up!" Her voice cracked with sobs yet brimmed with boundless rage and sorrow. "What do you know…"
She sprang to her feet, pointing at the screen as though accusing, as though mourning.
"I preach decadence and freedom so life can break free of that bitch Keisha's cold rules—so they can love, hate, indulge in desire! Even if they burn themselves away, it's the hottest, truest proof of life!"
Her shoulders trembled; the tears flowed faster.
"But this thing… what is it doing?" she choked, voice thick with disgust and pity. "It soaks life in putrid pus and tells them it's a warm home! It steals their pain—but also everything that makes them alive. They have no desire, no anger, no real joy… just breathing, string-pulled lumps of rotting meat!"
"This isn't freedom! This isn't decadence!" Morgana shrieked. "This is the ultimate slavery—ten-thousand times viler than Keisha's Order of Justice! At least Keisha gives life something to fight against; this 'Father' castrates the very instinct to rebel, making them love their own cage!"
She slumped back, covering her face, and sobbed quietly.
"I'd rather watch my demons cut to pieces by Angels on the battlefield than see any life reduced to… this filthy, pitiful thing that's lost even itself…"
At the far end of the known Universe, within the sanctuary of the Angel Nebula, Holy Keisha's expression remained serene—but the data streams around her surged more violently than ever.
"Parsing…" Angel Yan reported. "Queen Keisha, we're unable to analyze this entity—just like with The Emperor before."
"With all due respect, no civilization in the known Universe has a virus capable of this—not even our Angel Civilization."
Keisha spoke slowly, voice like ancient starlight yet carrying an unprecedented chill:
"Yan, do you remember the Warp mentioned at the beginning?"
"If I'm not mistaken, that Warp can affect reality under certain conditions."
"So if the humans of that World lack sufficient means to deal with the Chaos God's followers… I can scarcely imagine their fate."
Deeper still in the darkness, within the Death Song Academy of the Styx Galaxy, the king of the realm—Karl—watched with keen interest.
He adjusted his glasses and said to Sno beside him, "Record this: a most intriguing specimen."
"It traps life at the very last step before Death—decay—and stretches that moment into infinity. It is neither the 'Death' full of knowledge and mystery that I seek, nor the vibrant 'life' Keisha upholds. It is… an intermediate state—an eternal, crumbling 'existence.'"
"It resolves life's fear of Death, yet not with the key to the void but with a more painful cage—while deceiving its prisoners that this cage is paradise."
A scholar's smile curved Karl's lips.
"Truly… a crude and savage work of art."