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Even though he already knew the final outcome, Casca still looked at the doctor, "From a purely physical medical perspective."
"From a medical perspective?" the doctor replied. "I don't know. It's impossible. He went into the most contaminated area without any protection."
According to the Space Marine, he destroyed the enemy's most terrifying plague container, but he himself became afflicted with numerous illnesses as a result.
As you can see, he was exposed to all types of disease and the malice of the subspace. Yet he survived.
“I know,” Casgar said.
“Although the psionic factors that tormented him have been deactivated, which we have witnessed, the combination of multiple illnesses should have killed him hours ago. He should not be alive now.”
“He longs to see you, sir. In other words, I believe that is what drives him to live.”
“I have seen soldiers who should have succumbed to their wounds hours earlier, but held on until the chaplain of the regiment gave them their last confession. I have seen men who had wounds that could have killed a Space Marine, but held on until they had completed their mission before allowing themselves to die.”
"But this time is different."
“It’s different. He should still be dead. Something happened here that I don’t understand. He was kept alive by some kind of force, I’m pretty sure of that. These things can block any external spiritual power.” He pointed to the holy symbol on the glass.
"Because this is my strength."
Mathieu's voice was so weak it was almost inaudible, yet somehow he seemed to hear the conversation between the two outside: "Come in, friend, I have something to say to you."
I'm sorry, but...
Kasgar might be able to heal wounds, mutations, and diseases with psionic flames, but Mathieu suffered far more horrific consequences.
But the malevolent cauldron of plague corroded Mathieu's soul the instant it made contact—among the thousands of plagues that target non-material beings, Mathieu's soul lost its inherent vitality.
What's more, at that crucial moment, he threw all of his only means of protection, the Aqua cookies, into the cauldron.
Mathieu, who had lost his protection,
“We have won, Mathieu. Those Chaos creatures have been driven from our world, and their homeland has been wiped out by the Emperor—they will never again be able to invade our world and spread plagues at will!”
"We won!"
"Yes. We...this is our victory."
"actually......"
A faint smile appeared on Mathieu's gaunt face: "I knew it all along... You are not the Emperor... The feeling between the two of you is different... I have seen him... You are not him."
“But you did a great job… thank you. I didn’t know who you were, but when I saw you guiding people, I… I… cough cough, uh—”
“Stop for a moment, Mathieu.” Casca was infected by this sadness. “I know what you mean, don’t force yourself.”
"Let me finish speaking; these are my last words."
He gently raised his hand to signal himself to continue: "I hope, I implore you... to be like him, to continue... to keep going..."
"What we follow... is not the emperor... nor you, but an ideal that can save humanity... a hope."
"I will fight for you... I will fight for this goal."
"as always?"
"as always."
The flame in Mathieu's heart, beneath his final smile...
Burning eternally.
Chapter 264 Ark of Bad Omen
"Are you really sure?!"
"If we throw these things into that damned bug nest, they'll be poisoned?"
The Extreme Starfield, the front line against the Behemoth hive fleet.
The lurking, invisible raven guards are communicating intensely using sign language.
They have been fighting the Behemoth hive fleet for years, during which time both sides have had their share of victories and defeats.
At this stage of the war, all tactics have been used and all kinds of surprise attacks have been tried. Now all that's left is the most primitive war of attrition, with the Ultramarines constantly pulling and tugging at the Zerg fleet.
Your swarm of insects may be endless, but my Smurfs are just as endless!
Logically, after suffering losses exceeding a certain threshold, the Hive Fleet would seek out more suitable targets on the rooftops. However, perhaps because the world of Alteramar behind them was more tempting, or perhaps they were pursuing some grander purpose... In any case, during the prolonged attrition, the Hive Fleet showed no sign of retreating.
Fortunately, good news finally came from the rear of Altramer recently.
While they were trapped by the relentless harassment of the Zerg hive fleet, the plague war in the rear had come to an end—with humanity completely driving the Chaos scum out of the Five Hundred Worlds.
It is said that the Great Emperor, along with Saint Mathieu—the patron saint who rose to prominence during the Plague Wars—single-handedly destroyed Nurgle's Plague Cauldron, thus driving these vile warp creatures back to their homeland.
Once the plague war in the rear is won, it means that the soldiers on the front lines will no longer have to worry about being attacked from both sides. The material aid and fresh troops from the five hundred worlds can also continuously rush to the front lines to jointly fight against the Behemoth hive fleet.
“But why,” another Raven Guard gestured excitedly, “is our support weapon a bunch of badly baked cookies?”
It's still placed in a static force field!
It's like something extremely precious!
Surely the Ultramarines' food shouldn't be that bad? They usually get to eat Glocks steaks and drink Amasset every now and then.
These have absolutely nothing to do with the label—what? You're saying this is poison? Specifically designed to be placed in the digestive tracts of that swarm?
Despite not understanding it, the Raven Guards accepted the mission.
"I initially thought it would be a naval fleet coming, but it's been years and the High Lord hasn't sent their fleet to help us—what are these people thinking?"
As for the forces that Holy Terra has been sending to them, they have always been in a very tight position. No one knows why the High Lords Council has always kept a large number of Astral Army and naval fleets in the Solar System, but the current situation is that while the Extreme Starfield is facing attacks from both the Zerg Swarm and Chaos, the High Lords can provide very little support.
"Shut up. Stop chatting and just do as I say."
The Dark Raven Guard squad leader gestured for the other to focus, and under the protection of the cloaking force field, he approached the Tyranid Swarm Decomposer that was coming and going—the Tear Swarm—and finally dumped all the cookies from his backpack in front of the other.
"Let's see how it goes."
“These tearing worms are attracted to replenish biomass—if such things can really be called biomass.”
Just after the Dark Raven Guard squad leader threw the biscuits in his hand onto the open space near the digestive pool, the newly born, hungry Tear Worms seemed to have caught a whiff of this biomass information and began to swarm around the previously barren open space.
Surprisingly, the tearing worm didn't immediately devour and digest the biomass after getting close. Instead, it circled around the scattered biscuits with some suspicion, hesitating to taste them.
It seemed like he was hesitating about something.
"What's wrong with that bug?"
"I don't know, let's see."
It seems that a struggle for survival is taking place within the brain of the Ripper, between the instinct for survival and the underlying code. In the end, the underlying code prevails. After all, the hive's will hatches the Ripper simply to collect biomass and does not endow it with any additional intelligence to consume energy.
"!"
After eating the biscuit, the tearing worm struggled twice as if it were choking, then collapsed to the ground and became still.
"Captain, this poison only kills one Ripper! Can this level of poison really stop the swarm from advancing?"
"It's not over yet—"
The Ripper that arrived behind the dead insect had no idea why it had died such a violent death—to the lowly insect race without self-awareness, the dead Ripper was nothing more than another piece of biomass to be recycled.
eat!
As long as most of the biomass is not damaged, it can still be ingested and recycled into the incubation pool, where it will also decompose into biomass in the digestion pool.
The Tearbug will take anything that can be recycled.
including yourself.
And so, the latter began to eat his predecessor who had fallen to the ground.
"!"
Then, like its predecessors, the tearing worm collapsed to the ground and never got up again.
if encountering biomass
then eat
Until you're full of spicy food
Then it enters the digester.
As more and more tearing worms fell victim to the poison, their numbers piled up.
What is this? Biomass! Take a bite.
Ugh—it's poisonous.
died.
What is this? Biomass! Take a bite.
Ugh—it's poisonous.
died.
What is this? Biomass...
"That's enough. It looks like things are going well. Make a note of it and let's move on to the next digestion pool."
The Dark Raven Guard squad leader nodded in satisfaction, signaling the members behind him to follow and continue dropping the items at another location.
Although he didn't know how this potent toxin was made, it was indeed effective.
......
"...I really don't understand."
"How did you manage to make these things? I looked at every step of the process, and they all seemed perfectly normal...?"
Inside the Phoenix Clan's battle barge, Melusin is analyzing the magical properties of Aqua Cookies in the apothecary's laboratory to determine their origin.
She had previously only thought that Aqua was a bad cook.
Who would have thought that ten thousand years later, Aqua's creations seemed to have broken some kind of seal, and the poison in her casual creations was even more terrifying than that developed by the great apothecary Melusin!
Even Melusin is unable to reverse engineer the content through analysis.
It cannot be explained by science!
This is almost what Melisandre fears most right now—as a materialist who believes in the truth of the Empire, Melisandre feels that she really has a hard time explaining this matter using the truth of the Empire.
Forget it, I won't think about problems I can't figure out.
Let's think about how to deal with the storm that's about to hit Holy Terra.
The Phoenix's battle barge is carrying a motley crew of all sorts of characters toward Holy Terra.
The Plague Wars nearly made Caul's Primitive Warriors famous—the fact that the Emperor himself descended and possessed a Primitive Warrior Chapter Master was more effective than any advertisement. From then on, no one doubted Caul's loyalty in modifying the Emperor's technology or whether he had hidden backdoors.
Driven by Guilliman and signed by Second Company Commander Cato Sicarius, the Ultramarines and their sub-companies underwent a major overhaul of the Primal Forge following the Plague Wars.
Kaul has become a big name in the Extreme Starfield—and to repay Kasgar for promoting the original technology, he seems to have contributed all his ballast genetic seeds, saying he wants to quickly produce ten thousand Primal Forged Space Marines for the Phoenix Children.
"Ten thousand? Isn't that a bit much? How am I supposed to explain to the Inquisition why my warband has grown to the size of a legion?"
Guilliman agreed.
"......walk slowly."
If the judge truly believes she is Guilliman.
He (now she) has indeed contributed the most; Guilliman desperately wants someone to take on the role of regent.
As for the actual controller of the Ultramarines, Chapter Master Calgar, he promised to go to support Calgar's operation immediately after dealing with the internal affairs of Ultramar.
With their help, the Behemoth hive fleet suffered heavy losses—even the swarm, which prided itself on its superior self-evolutionary capabilities, could not defeat Aqua Biscuits despite its best efforts—and in the end, the hive fleet, whose digestive pools were almost entirely contaminated and unusable, had no choice but to retreat to minimize its losses.
The human empire had considered using poison to deal with the Terran.
However, given the swarm's extremely rapid self-evolution and iteration speed, even the most potent venom will only help the opponent evolve more resistant individuals.
But alas!
Even after the Behemoth hive fleet tried all the gene sequences of the species it had devoured, it still couldn't find any genes that could resist the "venom".
Aqua's move was ruthless.
The practice of directly contaminating the swarm's biomass pool is too insidious; even a giant devourer would have to detour around it.
Of course, these are all things to be discussed later.