[The three elite Deathshroud guards who once followed Mortarion, after witnessing the tragic end of their former Commander and the stance shown by Nurgle's herald Ephixis, resolutely chose to submit.]
[Ephixis did not directly accept their fealty.]
[In response, he began to cast a spell, intending to bestow Nurgle's "blessing" directly upon these three powerful warriors.]
[However, the blessings of the Warp gods are never easily endured.]
[It is not a gift in the mortal sense, but a form of violent transformation.]
[If one lacks a sufficiently strong will and physical body to accept this "gift," Death is the only outcome.]
[Sure enough, a horrific scene unfolded.]
[Among the three Deathshroud, two were found wanting during the blessing process; their bodies instantly swelled and rotted, eventually bursting in a silent explosion into a puddle of indescribable pus and bone fragments, dying on the spot.]
[Only one warrior, named Sephartus, relied on his extreme tenacity and powerful physique to endure the entire blessing process.]
[Amidst inhuman agony, he completed his transformation, turning into a bloated, oozing monster that radiated an even more powerful aura.]
[Subsequently, Ephixis led Sephartus and the other survivors back to their warship, preparing to implement Nurgle's grand plan.]
[The scene shifts, allowing the audience a glimpse into the interior of this Nurgle warship. It did not resemble a cold steel construct but rather the living, slowly rotting abdominal cavity of a giant beast.]
[The walls were not metal but a fleshy structure covered in slime that seemed to breathe slightly; the fluid flowing through the pipes was not coolant, but turbid, foul-smelling pus.]
[Even more chilling was the ship's "control system."]
[Countless mortals, their skin stripped away and their bodies fused with the ship, were embedded in the walls like tumors, serving as living "Wetware."]
[Their eyeballs rolled unconsciously, and meaningless groans escaped their mouths, while countless cables and tubes were plugged into their exposed brains and spines like maggots.]
[The crew on board were equally terrifying. Dressed in tattered uniforms, their bodies were bloated and swollen, their skin covered in pustules and sores.]
[Most horrifyingly, countless fat white maggots crawled in and out of the gaps in their armor, their bare skin, and even their eye sockets, yet the crew remained unresponsive, as if the maggots were naturally part of their bodies.]
[After a brief voyage through the Warp, the rotting warship suddenly lunged from the distorted dimensions into realspace.]
[However, before it, a massive Imperial Navy fleet stood ready and waiting.]
[This patrolling Imperial fleet was powerful, boasting numerous Emperor-class and Retribution-class battleships, along with no fewer than four squadrons of escorts.]
[Their hulls were sleek, bristling with gun ports, and the golden Aquila insignia on their prows appeared cold and majestic against the backdrop of space.]
[Compared to the Nurgle warship, which looked as if it had just been fished out of a sewer, this fleet was so clean and orderly it resembled a work of art. An encounter was imminent.]
The video paused at this moment, the screen freezing at the instant of confrontation between the solitary Plague Ship and the prepared Imperial fleet.
Marvel Universe
"That's not a blessing! That's murder!"
Captain America was the first to slam his hand on the table and stand up, his voice trembling slightly with anger. "A cold-blooded, random execution! They swore fealty, and in return, they got a two-thirds Death rate? What is this? What kind of army is this?!"
"An enhancement surgery with only a 33.3% success rate, with irreversible malignant mutations as a 'reward'."
Tony Stark's voice was icy as he rubbed his brow hard, trying to dispel the nausea rising to his head.
"Steve, don't use the word 'army'; it's an insult to soldiers everywhere. This is more like a horrific clinical trial, and those warriors were just lab rats who volunteered to lie on the operating table. That survivor... did he really 'survive'? Or was his pain simply given a new, uglier form?"
Bruce Banner's face was pale. As a top biologist, he was completely stunned by the sight of the warship's interior.
"Wetware... biological computers... They use living people as CPUs and data cables? This isn't technology; it's the most insane, evil, and anti-human engineering I can imagine!"
He paused, took a deep breath, and continued his analysis.
"And those crew members and maggots... that's not parasitism; it's some more terrifying symbiotic relationship. A mobile ecosystem full of decay and plague... My God, that ship itself is a living, terminally ill monster!"
"By Odin, there is no honor in this!"
Thor's voice was like suppressed thunder as he gripped Mjolnir tightly.
"The power of Asgard comes from trials of blood and honor, not this filthy, plague-ridden desecration! This so-called 'Father' Nurgle—what he gives is not power, but rot!"
"The point is,"
Tony suddenly looked up, pointing at the screen and looking at the solitary Nurgle warship as if it were an idiot. "Are they insane?! Do they not perform tactical reconnaissance for Warp jumps? No forward probes? No gravitational wave scans? They just... jumped out with their eyes closed?!"
"Who is their navigator? A drunken fool?! I couldn't design a suicidal military operation like this in even my worst simulations!"
"They don't seem to care."
The Captain looked at the Nurgle warship surrounded by the Imperial fleet, his tone more solemn than ever.
This simple sentence from him plunged everyone into a deeper silence.
Indeed, they didn't care.
This was more terrifying than stupidity.
"Exactly," Tony interjected, his voice full of absurdity. "I never thought I'd say this, but... seeing those guys hanging skulls and shouting dictatorial slogans... I actually feel a bit of a connection to them now."
He pointed at the Emperor-class battleship on the screen, which was slowly turning and charging its gun ports, and continued:
"Look at them! That's what a warship should look like! A clear chain of command, polished armor, well-trained gunners..."
"Okay, they might be a bunch of fanatical fascists, but at least they look 'normal'! Compared to that maggot-infested thing across from them that uses people as wires, the Empire is practically the light of civilization!"
Thor also nodded heavily, his expression serious.
"On one side is a rotting, honorless plague; on the other are warriors prepared and ready for battle. Whatever their faith may be, at this moment, they represent Order standing against absolute Chaos."
For the first time, when facing an Imperial fleet, the Avengers did not immediately feel their instinctive revulsion toward totalitarianism.
In the face of a deeper, purer evil, that cold, cruel Empire—which at least maintained some "human" form—suddenly seemed less abhorrent.
DC Universe
"There's always a better way..." Superman whispered. "They just wanted to become stronger, to follow a new belief... and what they got in return was this... random, undignified destruction."
He clenched his fists, his eyes shifting from warm blue to cold anger. When the camera turned to the interior of the Plague Ship, Superman instinctively closed his eyes, but the horrific image was already burned into his mind.
He could see those mortals used as "Wetware," their vital signs weak and painful, their consciousnesses drifting in an eternal nightmare.
"They're still alive... My God, every single one of them is still alive, used as cold machine parts, enduring every second of torture."
Wonder Woman Diana looked at the crew members living in symbiosis with maggots, her eyes full of pity:
"They have been stripped of the right to feel clean, and even the right to perceive their own pain. Their souls are trapped in a cycle of self-decay; this is ten thousand times more cruel than Death. This is the maddest dream of Ares, the God of War—a war without honor, only endless rot."
"Their tactical logic is built upon 'worthlessness'."
Batman's voice came from the shadows, cold, precise, and devoid of emotion.
"The life of the individual is worthless, tactical precision is worthless, even their own survival is worthless."
"So, they don't scout, because in their philosophy, any outcome is 'Nurgle's plan'."
"Colliding with a fleet is the plan, passing through smoothly is the plan, being blown into space dust... is also part of the plan."
He did not feel a hint of comfort in the Empire's "normalcy" like the others did; instead, he became more vigilant.
"Make no mistake. On one side are fanatics using rot and plague to spread chaos; on the other are dictators using fear and firepower to maintain Order."
"They are two sides of the same coin, both expressions of an absolute desire for control."
"The only difference is that one lets you rot in the mud, while the other builds you into a wall."
"Neither gives you the right to choose."
"Bollocks."
In the corner, John Constantine exhaled a ring of smoke, a look of disgust on his face.
"They call that a 'blessing'? I've dealt with devils for years; at least they know to write the price clearly in the contract. These two poor bastards didn't even get a chance to see the fine print before they popped. Typical rookies."
He sneered at the interior of the ship:
"Smells like the vomit of some low-level demon I saw in a pub toilet last week. Using souls as batteries isn't a new trick, but making it this messy and disorganized shows a real lack of taste."
When he saw the Plague Ship crash headlong into the Imperial fleet's encirclement, a hint of a smile finally appeared on his perpetually tired face—a malicious smile mixed with mockery and amusement.
"Haha, look at these idiots," Constantine chuckled, pointing at the screen with his cigarette-holding finger.
"Jumping through the Warp without eyes, plunging straight into someone else's gun barrels. They can't possibly expect their 'Father' whatever-his-name-is to personally step in and save them, can they?"
He flicked his ash and spoke leisurely, in the tone of someone who had seen it all:
"Naive. They should know that what these so-called gods love most is giving you a little 'power' and then watching with great interest as you use that power to screw yourself over."
"They don't just meddle in the real World to help you out of the mess you've made. Those are the rules of the game, boys. Welcome to the real Universe."