The domains of the Chaos Gods were home to countless demons, who had been engaged in an eternal war for ages.
It was only after the Imperium of Man rose rapidly, at a speed that astonished the gods, that they united and turned their aggression towards humanity.
The Garden of Nurgle is the domain of Nurgle, the Plague God, in the Warp, a festering amalgam of disease-ridden jungles, forests, swamps, and verdant vegetation, all materialized from inexhaustible life.
No mortal, save for Nurgle's followers, could hope to survive in Nurgle, the Plague God's Garden.
For this reason, those chosen to invade the Garden of Nurgle were the elite of the elite.
They possessed multiple blessings and the most advanced technological armor.
Among them were legendary heroes of the Imperium such as Saint Celestine, and Grand Master Handsome guy of the Grey Knights.
In addition, there were high-level Players and Cursed Legion warriors.
When everything was ready, Alex and the others set off.
They rode in an ancient Aeldari relic, a Bone-ship, and charged into the Garden of Nurgle.
The Garden of Nurgle contained countless demons; plague fly swarms buzzed menacingly, patrolling the garden's myriad paths, searching for intruders to torment.
Tiny Nurglings gathered in waves, gleefully bouncing through the foul undergrowth, attempting to cause mischief.
Hordes of slug-like Nurgle Beasts slithered through the swamps, searching for their unfortunate companions.
From the oozing gallows trees, fortresses and watchtowers made of putrid fat and corroded steel prominently rose.
And on the outskirts of the Garden of Nurgle were countless corrupted and reshaped worlds.
Clara lived on one such world.
"There used to be a city here."
As she spoke, she coughed, spitting out a thick phlegm filled with maggots.
When she walked, her buttocks ached faintly, causing her to limp—another wonderful gift from Father Nurgle.
"There was never a city here!" Ordifus shouted, his voice hoarse and strange.
This was a lingering effect from when a swarm of flies had parasitized his throat as an infant.
His voice was distorted by his rotten throat, hence its hoarseness and strangeness.
Clara was startled by her companion; his shout stirred up a large swarm of angry flies.
They buzzed into the air, a dark mass that looked very unsettling.
"There was!" Clara retorted, unyielding.
She pushed her greasy, foul-smelling hair away from her one good eye, looking at her companion.
"Those trees."
Clara pointed to the towering clam-trees, each adorned with thousands of colorful slime caps.
"These used to be buildings, as tall as the sky."
"And these."
Clara then pointed to the moss on the ground, "These were roads; they were very hard."
"There are no such things in Father Nurgle's Garden," Ordifus said coldly. "This is a forest, it always has been, only trees, slime, and flies, no buildings, no roads."
The two of them argued incessantly.
Neither was willing to back down.
Until they reached the boundary of the scavenging ground and saw stone houses covered in vines, stacked seven or eight layers high.
The rusty doors hung open, and the darkness within exuded a sickening stench.
Animals foraged among the houses, but they were all blessed; not a single one was healthy.
A group of rats scurried past.
Their bodies were covered in festering sores, and their rotting flesh was exposed, which was utterly disgusting.
The two found some boxes in the house; upon opening them, piles of metal spilled out.
"Excellent steel!" Ordifus shouted excitedly. "We're rich, haha, we're rich!"
"How many swords and how many dung forks can we forge with these?"
Clara didn't listen to him, instead drawn by a strange sound.
A wonderful song drifted to her.
She followed the sound, which grew clearer, its melody increasingly high-pitched. The writhing tumors and parasitic flies on her body emitted sounds of pain, whispering, urging Clara to flee from those sounds.
Clara's curiosity outweighed everything else; she limped forward.
She saw a rift appear in space, and golden flames burned.
They spread rapidly, sweeping through different fissures.
In mere moments, they ignited the surrounding slime-covered vines and decaying trees, which burst into a raging inferno.
The scorching heat caused immense suffering to the nearby flies and maggots. The rift continued to expand, and the flames began to spread.
Clara subconsciously walked towards the flames, stepping into them.
As the flames consumed her body, she instinctively spoke a phrase hated by Father Nurgle's Garden, following the wonderful song.
"King of Kings, the great Emperor of Mankind."
The golden flames surged, enveloping her and burning her cursed body to ashes.
Ordifus also witnessed this scene.
He panicked and tried to escape, but he hadn't run far when the scorching flames consumed him, also burning him to ashes.
The flames spread faster and faster, purifying everything and restoring it to its original state.
Immediately after, a fleet of Bone-ships surged into Nurgle's Garden.
"Kill! Kill! Kill! Hack! Hack! Hack!"
Wrist Bro, holding two large axes, roared towards the sky.
Warmaster reached out from behind him and pushed him aside, "Am I the boss, or are you the boss? You always stand first; people who don't know might think I'm your subordinate!"
Wrist Bro put away one battle-axe and gave Warmaster the middle finger, "That's how much I revere you, boss."
"Such things are best kept in your heart; don't gesture them," Warmaster said, reaching out to pull Wrist Bro's middle finger back down.
"No!!" Wrist Bro shook his head, "I will gesture it; I want you to know."
"Ugh!!" Warmaster looked at Tenjiro and Twisted person, "This guy is too much; he's disrespectful to the boss. What do you think we should do?"
"For my sake, let it go," Tenjiro said.
"Wrist Bro, kick him twice; this boss really can't tell the difference between big and small," Twisted person egged Wrist Bro on.
Warmaster: "..."
He felt a faint sadness, didn't he!
Alex glanced at the boisterous Players, shook his head, and then continued to look at the Garden of Nurgle.
At this moment, the Cursed Legion and the Aeldari Wraith-warriors had already engaged Nurgle's demonic army.
The Bone-ships continuously poured out fierce artillery fire, destroying swathes of Nurgle's demonic army.
Due to the Moro Battlefield, the Garden of Nurgle was at its most vulnerable defensively.
All famous Greater Demons had gone to the Moro Battlefield, where both sides were locked in a desperate struggle.
Even the Chaos Gods / The Four Gods themselves had gone, using avatars or vessels to enter the battlefield and engage the Emperor.
No one expected humanity to disregard martial ethics and directly attack their home base.
The Bone-ships passed through the sea of fire and agricultural lands, propelled by surging lightning.
The places where the ships passed left a trail of destruction; demons burned on the surface, and their piercing screams echoed through the Garden.
The Players activated their flight packs or Steel Wings, diving to the ground to fight the rotting Nurgle Demons, preventing them from advancing towards Nurgle's Demonic Palace.
"In the name of the Emperor, in the name of Dorn, in the name of the Gorge."
Warmaster swung his sword, hacking at the Nurgle Demons, his metal wings flapping behind him, allowing him to soar through the rotting sky.
The fragments of law integrated into his body took effect, allowing him to move freely in this rotten Garden without fear of corruption or poisoning.
His blade was incredibly sharp; even demons could be easily cut in half.
No enemy could stop him; all enemies who appeared before him ultimately met their demise at his hands.
Wrist Bro, Twisted person, and other Players gathered around him, also fiercely hacking at the demons.
A swarm of Plague Drones attacked; they fired their flesh-grown autocannons.
Da da da, firing countless rotten bullets.
Shields automatically appeared, blocking the bullets fired by the Plague Drones.
Then, their shoulder-mounted autocannons locked onto the Drones, wildly strafing and blowing them all up.
On the other side, Alex transformed into a burning sun; scorching flames continuously erupted from his body, causing countless demons to shriek.
Just seeing his presence caused the eyes of countless demons to melt into liquid, flowing from their eye sockets.
Their advance was so swift that the Nurgle Demons were cut down before they could even gather.
The Bone-ships' target was very clear: Nurgle's Demonic Palace.
That rotting palace, covered in countless slimes, imprisoned another Aeldari deity—Isha.
Their most important objective on this journey was this Goddess of Life.
Boom!!
A Bone-ship, without a second's hesitation, directly crashed into the main gate of the Demonic Palace, forcefully smashing it open.
Laughing God Cegorach ran the fastest, heading straight for Nurgle's plague cauldron.
The Goddess of Life, Isha, was chained near the cauldron; whenever Nurgle brewed a new plague, he would use her to test it.
When Isha saw Cegorach, she was stunned; she had never imagined that one day she would see her old friend again.
"Cegorach? Is this a dream?"
"If it's a dream, then please don't let me wake up."
Cegorach didn't have time for many explanations; he raised the longsword in his hand and swung it at Isha's chains, "It's me. We need to be faster; if Nurgle returns, none of us will be able to leave."
On the other side, the Players also seized Sanguinius's soul.
Nurgle had placed it in a transparent bottle.
The Players spotted it at once.
After all, Nurgle's bottles were all dirty and covered in slime, except for the one containing Sanguinius's soul fragment, which was impossibly clean.
After obtaining Isha and Sanguinius's soul fragment, Alex had no more worries.
He transformed into a meteor and crashed into Nurgle's Demonic Palace.
In the ruins, he revealed his divine form, becoming a golden giant.
Then, he lifted Nurgle's great cauldron and threw it into Tzeentch's domain.
When Father Nurgle returned, he would watch his cauldron, just like that, traverse the Warp and crash into the Crystal Labyrinth.
"You've stolen, you've smashed, and you've even thrown my cauldron??"
"Isn't this going too far??"
Thinking of this, Father Nurgle immediately became enraged.
He wanted to capture Alex and make the other party understand what cruelty was.
Alex was also very decisive; flapping his wings, he charged towards Slaanesh's domain.
Nurgle pursued him, with many demons following closely behind.
Although the Chaos Gods / The Four Gods had temporarily ceased fire, with such a large number of Nurgle Demons entering their territory, Slaanesh's demons immediately opened fire.
Who knew if Nurgle was trying to seize their territory and authority?
The three forces—humanity, Nurgle, and Slaanesh—began to fight in Slaanesh's domain, locked in an intense battle.
Laughing God Cegorach took the opportunity to sneak into Slaanesh's palace, stealing the Crone Swords and Sanguinius's soul fragment.
When Slaanesh returned, he was furious and, along with Father Nurgle, wanted to capture Alex.
With two Chaos Gods / The Four Gods attacking simultaneously, Alex naturally couldn't contend.
But he played a trick, charging into Khorne's territory and immediately self-destructing.
The fire of faith formed a terrifying explosion, its power even more exaggerated than when Slaanesh was born.
The entire Warp was engulfed in colossal waves, and the raging storms were dispersed, restoring a brief calm.
Due to the explosion, a gap appeared in the Brass Citadel, and the Bloodstained Plains were torn into pieces.
Although such cracks would be easily repaired,
Cegorach, that sneaky fellow, took the opportunity to steal Sanguinius's soul and also stole the humanity stripped from Angron.
Khorne gnashed his teeth in anger but couldn't do anything to Cegorach; the latter was too good at running and hiding.
When he saw things going south, he would hide in the Webway, and no one could find him.
The only remaining piece was Sanguinius's soul fragment in Tzeentch's hands.
However, the Chaos Gods / The Four Gods were already on guard, making it very difficult to surprise them again.
Just when everyone thought it was impossible to retrieve it, the return of the Wolf King brought a turning point.
He brought back Sanguinius's soul fragment and also the Tree of Life, capable of healing the Emperor.
But the Wolf King's appearance was heartbreaking; his hair had turned white, and his face was covered in wounds, each one shocking.
His battle armor was full of cracks and signs of battle.
One of his hands was severed, its very concept of existence erased, never to be restored.
It could only be replaced by a mechanical hand.
After questioning, everyone learned that for ten thousand years, the Wolf King had been searching and hunting.
He traversed the Warp and entered the pristine non-material realm, untouched by the Old Ones.
It was incredibly chaotic, and every step contained terrible dangers.
But the Wolf King, relying on his wisdom, overcame each danger and found the legendary Tree of Life in the pristine non-material realm.
The Tree of Life was the beginning of life in the galaxy, containing unimaginable vitality.
The Warp was essentially just the Old Ones' modification of the pristine non-material realm. In their prime, the Old Ones could be said to have had a complete understanding of the pristine non-material realm, but there were some things they couldn't control.
The Tree of Life was one of them.
Therefore, the four Four Chaos Gods, born from the eight-pointed star, could not prevent the Wolf King from seeking the Tree of Life.
If the Tree of Life had been born from the Warp, it would have long been controlled by the Four Chaos Gods.
The Wolf King's return was a momentous event.
The power of the Tree of Life could expel the wounds left on the Emperor by the Four Chaos Gods.
If they were ordinary wounds, the Emperor could recover on his own, but the power of the Four Chaos Gods was conceptual; only the Tree of Life could fully restore the Emperor and allow him to wield that power, which transcended gods, in a mortal body.
As the power of the Tree of Life was infused into the Golden Throne, the Emperor's wounds healed at a visible speed, and then, he slowly opened his eyes.