Chapter 161 - Death Angel
~ 💎 WEEKLY POWER GOALS 💎🔥 60→1ch | 100→2ch | 200→5ch ⏰ Resets Monday! Thanks!
The addition of Fulgrim's fleet, the fallen primarch's forces, dramatically increased the pressure on the loyalists in the Plague Wars.
The Emperor's Children broke into the Five Hundred Worlds of Ultramar from the northwest.
Strangely, Guilliman showed almost no concern. He dispatched a few mobile fleets to contain and monitor the enemy, a purely symbolic gesture, then went back to sitting in the command chamber of the Macragge's Honour, reviewing documents when there were documents to review, drinking afternoon tea when it was time for afternoon tea.
Because in the northwest, a group of very special "allies" was watching the gate for him.
Orks. And Necrons.
The outcome was exactly what Guilliman expected. His fallen brother's fleet had blundered straight into a fight with both factions at once.
The Emperor's Children were now wedged between two forces that had absolutely no business working together.
The fallen primarch had come to pressure Guilliman. Instead, he was solving his brother's xenos problem for him.
The Lord of Ultramar and his brothers laughed out loud aboard the Macragge's Honour. And at that same moment, aboard the Pride of the Emperor, the fallen serpent was screaming at a battlefield data-slate.
---------
Perspective shifts to the Plaguefather, Ku'gath Plaguefather.
Ku'gath Plaguefather had sent word to his ally Mortarion about the special creation he was nearly finished brewing. The Lord of Death wasted no time. He came straight to Yacos.
"I have come, Ku'gath Plaguefather, answering your summons."
Mortarion walked through the abandoned hospital. This was where the Plaguefather had set up the great cauldron, the vessel in which he brewed his work.
"Oh, my lord primarch. Welcome."
Ku'gath Plaguefather made the effort to bow. Mortarion waved it off.
"I heard Abaddon paid you a visit. That he brought you a gift, to make your masterpiece — the Godsplague — even more virulent?"
"Indeed, my lord."
Ku'gath Plaguefather's voice was like thick phlegm caught at the back of the throat. Unpleasant to hear.
"In the Grandfather's cauldron, a masterpiece of mine is about to be born."
"Not only the gift Abaddon brought me, but also one bestowed by the Grandfather himself."
"Something beyond what's in this cauldron?"
Mortarion frowned. A twinge of jealousy, directed at Ku'gath Plaguefather.
This was proof of the Grandfather's trust in his favorite.
"Of course," Ku'gath Plaguefather said, without any awareness of the mood in the room.
"What is it?"
"It comes from the same master as the gift Abaddon brought. A part of your brother Sanguinius." Ku'gath Plaguefather's voice swelled with reverence. "Material even more precious than a single drop of Guilliman's blood."
The Lord of Death's pupils contracted sharply.
Behind the gas mask, his eyes went razor-sharp.
"A part of Sanguinius." His voice was flat. Dangerous. "What exactly are you planning?"
The Plaguefather chuckled. The swollen glands on his throat bulged and pulsed, like a toad in full song. The sound sent a chill crawling up Mortarion's spine.
"A mobile Godsplague. An existence comparable to a primarch."
The next second, Mortarion's great scythe was at Ku'gath Plaguefather's throat.
One nanometer of distance. The cold blade resting against the Plaguefather's wet, oozing skin.
"You told me you were creating a monster." The Lord of Death's voice was compressed to almost nothing, every word forced out through gritted teeth. "You did not tell me you were creating something equal to us."
If Ku'gath Plaguefather had only been brewing a more potent Godsplague, or engineering monsters to carry the disease, Mortarion wouldn't have cared.
But this creature was using a piece of his brother to build a counterfeit.
Mortarion didn't like Sanguinius. He loathed that perpetually radiant brother. But he had to acknowledge it: Sanguinius was his equal.
The gene-primarchs were the Emperor of Mankind's singular creations. A unity of perfection and imperfection. Legends beyond mortal comprehension.
They could hate each other. They could draw blades on each other. But they were bound to defend the dignity of what they shared.
It was like a small island nation invading a continent. The factions of that continent could spend centuries tearing each other apart, but faced with an outside enemy, they closed ranks. Because in the end, the blood was the same.
"Please, my lord. Be calm."
Ku'gath Plaguefather understood Mortarion's capabilities very well. The scythe pressed against his neck housed a powerful Greater Daemon of Nurgle. The daemon primarch could slaughter him where he stood.
"Give me a reasonable explanation, Ku'gath Plaguefather."
"I cannot give you a reasonable explanation, my lord." The Plaguefather's tone was candid. "If we want to win this war, something must change. Even the Changer of Ways, Tzeentch, knows this, and the Grandfather does not wish us to fail. We cannot fail. So I must do what I must do."
He paused. When he continued, there was something almost earnest in his voice.
"Think about what we're facing, my lord. Guilliman. Horus. And your little brother, Sanguinius has already returned. Lion El'Jonson moves in the shadows. We are not simply fighting the armies of the human Imperium. We are fighting multiple loyal primarchs, standing together. You and I alone, with the plagues we currently have, it is not enough."
Mortarion said nothing. Ku'gath Plaguefather pressed on.
"And then there is the mortal attendant of Horus."
"Mortal attendant?"
Mortarion withdrew the scythe, slowly. That a Greater Daemon of Nurgle would specifically mention a mortal, that was not something he had expected.
"You likely don't know this one. Rotigus said he will be the most troublesome presence in this entire game of gods. Because he is the one who brought Horus, Sanguinius, and Curze back into the present world."
Mortarion went quiet.
He had never known this.
He had always assumed the return of Horus and Sanguinius was the work of the rotting corpse on the Golden Throne. Some final, desperate exertion of the false Emperor's dwindling power.
Now it seemed the false Emperor had nothing to do with it.
An ordinary mortal. Just an ordinary mortal.
"Then he is worthy of our attention." The Lord of Death spoke slowly.
He wasn't foolish. He understood precisely what kind of power it took to return multiple primarchs to the living world.
"Without question." Ku'gath Plaguefather nodded, then turned and gestured proudly toward the great cauldron. "That is precisely why I brewed this."
Mortarion stepped forward.
He caught only the faintest trace of the stench, and the flesh on his face began to slide away, peeling back to expose the bone beneath. Bone that had been eaten by plague for ten thousand years.
Pain. A long-forgotten pain. It detonated across every nerve ending the Lord of Death still possessed.
He hadn't felt this in a very long time.
"This existence surpasses any plague ever made." Ku'gath Plaguefather's voice was saturated with pride, the tone of a creator introducing his finest child. "It can kill you. It can kill me. It can kill every gene-primarch alive. Including our ally Fulgrim."
Mortarion was quiet for a moment.
"...How much longer?"
"Seven weeks. Seven days. Seven hours. Seven minutes. Seven seconds."
Ku'gath Plaguefather answered with boundless cheer, as if he could already see victory waving to the Grandfather's children from across the battlefield.
"This thing is no longer the Godsplague. I have given it a new name —"
The Plaguefather's voice fell away.
From the great cauldron of green liquid, something rose.
Roughly humanoid. Shattered flesh-wings spreading from its back. Its silhouette carried a disturbing echo of Sanguinius, the same shape, the same sweep of wingspan, but every inch had been twisted, corrupted, packed full of Nurgle's most venomous curses.
The reek of decay rolled through the abandoned hospital like a tide. The air itself thickened, heavy with the tolling of death's bells.
"The Pale Plague. Death Angel."
➤ Next: The Idea of Supplementing the Clone's Essence
————————————————————
🔥 Patreon members are 60+ chapters ahead.
⚡ Limited-time offer currently running...
👉 Join on -
patreon(.)com/DarkGolds