198: Chapter 198 Nagoro battles the Cold Observer

The dark gold pulse of the Sea of Order remained steady, and the Warp Hunting Fleet's regular hunts kept the domains of the Four Chaos Gods in a state of constant vibration. Deep within the Tomb of Time, Fulgrim's analysis had entered a critical stage. Just as the Human Federation was advancing its systematic purge of Chaos with cold efficiency, a signal from the deepest reaches of the Extragalactic Systems tore through all preset alert levels.

The signal did not originate from the the cold observer itself.

It came from Nurgle's domain, that Eternal Garden woven of decay and mercy located deep within the Warp.

More accurately, it came from an unobserved void zone at the border between Nurgle's domain and the Extragalactic Systems. The essence of the Warp there had been forcibly frozen by a more ancient and colder power, forming a forbidden zone that even the Chaos Gods avoided.

And at this moment, that forbidden zone was burning.

“Cold Observer Special Research Group - Emergency Report”

“Detected ultra-high-level energy collision from the Extragalactic direction!” providence's voice carried a rare sense of urgency. “Energy signature analysis: one side matches Nurgle's domain with high precision, intensity is unquantifiable; the other side—”

The holographic image fell into an eerie silence. It wasn't a signal interruption; rather, as the sensors attempted to render the other party, they collectively fell into a logic loop. They could not see the entity itself, only the consequences it caused.

“The other side matches historical observation data of the the cold observer with high precision,” the adjudicator's voice intervened. “Forced analysis in progress. Estimated completion time: Unknown. The entity's nature of refusing to be observed is actively interfering with the analysis process.”

Han Zhe's gaze froze on that void that could not be rendered.

“They are fighting.” His voice was calm, but every word was like a hammer striking ice. “Nurgle and the the cold observer.”

After seven hours of continuous forced analysis by the adjudicator, a distorted, incomplete battlefield image—one sufficient to leave the Human Federation's high command collectively speechless—was finally, barely rendered.

It was not a war in the conventional sense.

It was a collision of two universal rules.

On one side of the battlefield was the projection of Nurgle's essence, a form of immeasurable size composed of endless decaying life. It was not Nurgle himself, but an avatar projection large enough to cover a galaxy.

Wherever this projection passed, the void itself began to grow: wriggling fungal mats bloomed on the wreckage of metallic ships, warm pus flowed over the surfaces of cold meteorites, and even light was dyed an unholy mold-green after passing through the projection area.

It was an extension of Nurgle's Eternal Garden into the physical universe, an ultimate erosion that returned everything to rot, to cycles, and to mercy.

The other side of the battlefield had no form, only a blank space.

It was not nothingness, not a vacuum, but something more absolute: the absolute rule of law. In that area, physical constants were precisely locked to an unchangeable value, and any attempt to deviate was corrected the instant it occurred.

When Nurgle's fungal mats spread to the boundary of that area, their cell division rate was forcibly reduced to the theoretical minimum and then stopped; microorganisms in the pus were purged one by one, as if filtered by an invisible sieve; even that unholy mold-green light was recalibrated back to the normal spectrum.

That was the essence of the the cold observer—not a god, not a will, but the personified overseer of the universe's underlying laws. At this moment, decay and law were engaged in an unprecedented slaughter within that void zone.

Nurgle's projection struck that blank area again and again, each impact leaving an eternal imprint of decay in the void, but each time, those imprints were erased by an unseen force as if they had never existed. The blank area advanced slowly but firmly toward Nurgle's projection, and wherever it passed, the extension of the Eternal Garden was formatted back to primitive nothingness inch by inch.

But Nurgle did not retreat.

His projection suddenly condensed, no longer a boundless erosion, but concentrating all power into a single point, like a spear forged from endless plagues, stabbing fiercely into the core of that blankness.

All sensors failed in that instant. Seven seconds later, when the image returned, cracks appeared in the blank area.

They were not spatial cracks, but something more fundamental: for the first time, observable flaws appeared in that domain ruled by absolute law. The flaws were like cracks on ice, extending inward slowly but irreversibly.

Then, the Human Federation heard—or rather, their sensors captured—a signal from that blank area.

It was not language, not a concept, not even any information that could be interpreted. It was the sound of the law itself, a wail produced when the universe's underlying code was forcibly rewritten, incomprehensible to any material existence.

The the cold observer was injured.

Its blank domain began to shrink, no longer actively advancing but retreating. Nurgle's projection seized this moment, injecting more essence of decay into the crack, like sowing an unhealing plague into a wound.

Finally, that blank area, along with the the cold observer it represented, dissipated into the void.

It was not destroyed, but retreated. It was a cold, impersonal strategic relocation after realizing that continuing the battle would incur an unacceptable cost.

Nurgle's projection lingered in the center of that battlefield, slowly turning toward the direction of the Human Federation's observation equipment.

Even across countless light-years, even through a distorted image barely rendered by sensors, at that moment, all Human Federation observation personnel felt a gaze that pierced to the bone—not hostility, not a warning, not even any emotion that could be interpreted.

Keystone-1 Command - Emergency Strategic Meeting

A silence lasting three minutes followed.

In the holographic image, the void zone after the battle was still slowly healing. Nurgle's projection had dissipated, but the imprint of decay He left remained there, like a sneer that would never fade.