3: Chapter 3 Chaos wants to corrupt the swarm? Laughable, it can't even find the door.

The energy trails left by the Chaos Cultists continued to emit faint ripples within the creep's sensory range.

The Overmind had been tracking this trail for over six hours.

Three surviving Zerglings were sent north to scout. Their carapaces were mostly shattered from the previous battle, and the newly secreted chitin had not yet fully hardened, making a faint scraping sound as they ran. But this did not affect their efficiency—The Swarm did not need perfect individuals, only enough of them.

The energy trail stretched north along a dried-up riverbed.

The rock walls on both sides of the riverbed were covered in marks of Chaos energy corruption. It wasn't physical corrosion, but a more eerie alteration: twisted textures emerged on the rock surfaces, like countless silent screaming faces frozen in stone. The further north they went, the denser these textures became, and the smell of sulfur mixed with rotting meat grew stronger in the air.

Seventeen kilometers later, the scouting Zerglings discovered their first target.

The Chaos Cultist trailing at the very back was kneeling on the ground, gasping for breath. His legs had been sliced into a bloody mess by rubble during his flight, and dark red blood seeped from beneath his grey skin. He was still muttering something—not language, but a heap of meaningless syllables—yet with every vibration of his vocal cords, the Chaos energy in the surrounding air grew thicker.

The Zerglings did not attack immediately.

What the Overmind wanted was not a corpse, but information.

One Zergling circled to the Chaos Cultist's side, while the other two blocked his path forward and backward. The Chaos Cultist noticed the encirclement, but he did not flee. His mouth curled into an unnatural arc, revealing gums corroded black.

"Purple bugs..." his voice was as raspy as two pieces of sandpaper rubbing together. "My Lord... My Lord has seen... seen new prey..."

The Overmind did not respond. There was no point in talking to Chaos Cultists—their consciousness had been completely rewritten; they were no longer independent individuals but humanoid megaphones for Chaos energy.

The Zergling pounced, its bone blades accurately piercing the back of the Chaos Cultist's neck, severing the spine. It wasn't a fatal wound—Chaos corruption allowed a host to survive even in a state of heavy injury—but it was enough to strip him of his mobility.

The Chaos Cultist collapsed onto the gravel, limbs twitching, still laughing.

"My Lord says... you are interesting... no soul to feast upon... but it doesn't matter... My Lord can find other pleasures..."

The Zergling's other bone blade sliced open his chest and abdomen.

His internal organs were exposed.

Through the Zergling's senses, the Overmind examined the Chaos Cultist's internal structure.

The human organs were still there, but every single one had been twisted. Small bone spurs grew on the surface of the heart; with every beat, the spurs would pierce into the myocardium and then withdraw, leaving dense clusters of needle-like holes. The lungs were covered in a layer of viscous black liquid, with bubbles occasionally swelling on the surface as if something were breathing inside. The intestines were tangled into a mess, parts of the intestinal walls having necrotized and fallen off, replaced by a dark red fleshy tissue—not human tissue, but an alien growth spawned by Chaos.

The most severe was the brain.

The Overmind drove the Zergling to cut open the Chaos Cultist's skull. Brain tissue was exposed to the air—or rather, the place where brain tissue once existed. Most of the brain parenchyma had been replaced by a purplish-black mush, with only the bottom-most brainstem retaining its original structure. The position of the amygdala had completely vanished, replaced by a pulsating sac-like structure filled with a high concentration of Chaos energy.

This was the ultimate result of Chaos corruption.

It wasn't control, nor possession, but total replacement. Chaos began its erosion from the emotional centers, twisting the host's emotions and desires into a breeding ground where Chaos energy could parasitize and grow, then spreading outward layer by layer until the entire nervous system was replaced by a vessel for Chaos energy.

"No individual... no entrance."

The Overmind reconfirmed this conclusion.

The Zerglings of The Swarm had no amygdala. Their nervous systems were terminal nodes of the Hive Mind network; they produced no independent emotions and possessed no independent fears or desires. Each Zergling's "consciousness" was essentially an extension of the Overmind's will, like a finger to a brain.

Chaos could not corrupt a finger.

Unless it corrupted the brain first.

And the Overmind—the brain of The Swarm—was hidden behind the willpower barriers of billions of bodies. To corrupt the Overmind, Chaos would first have to pass through the willpower barriers of every Zerg individual, and the consciousness structure of every individual lacked any anchor point for Chaos to latch onto.

It was a perfect closed loop of defense.

"My Lord says... it doesn't matter... there will always be a way..." The Chaos Cultist was near death, but his mouth still opened and closed mechanically. "My Lord has sent... better hunters... purple bugs... soon you will... see..."

His voice cut off.

It wasn't death—his heart was still beating, his lungs still breathing—but the throat that produced the sound was suddenly seized as if by an invisible hand. Chaos energy surged from his seven orifices, condensing in the air into a blurry shape.

That was a silhouette. A silhouette with curved horns, a wide grin, and a mocking air.

The silhouette existed for less than a second before dissipating. But before it vanished, the Zergling's senses captured a piece of information—not a sound, not an image, but a ripple projected directly onto the level of consciousness.

"Interesting."

The ripple said.

Then the Chaos Cultist's body began to swell.

The Overmind immediately drove the Zerglings to retreat. It was half a step too late—the Chaos Cultist's body exploded like an over-inflated balloon, spraying purplish-black pus and shredded meat in all directions. One Zergling was splashed on half of its hind leg; the Chaos Repulsion Factor on its carapace immediately began to resonate, neutralizing the erosion of the Chaos energy in the pus—but not completely. The lattice structure of the rejection factor partially shattered under the impact of that energy, and dark purple corruption seeped a few millimeters inward along the cracks in the carapace.

The Zergling bit off its own hind leg.

No order from the Overmind was needed. The instincts of Zerg units were programmed this way: when a part of the body is contaminated and cannot be purified, discard that part. The Zergling's stump quickly secreted chitin to seal the wound and prevent fluid loss.

The severed hind leg fell to the ground, and within three seconds, the Chaos corruption dissolved it into a puddle of black water.

A howl came from further north.

It wasn't the roar of a Chaos Hound. That sound was higher, sharper, with a texture of metal grinding. The ground began to vibrate slightly—not an earthquake, but the rhythmic thumping of a large creature running.

The three Zerglings turned simultaneously to face the north.

On the dark horizon, a massive silhouette was emerging from the mist condensed from Chaos energy. Its size was close to that of a rhinoceros on Earth, but it was covered not in skin but in exposed muscle fibers; dark red muscle bundles writhed like countless snakes as it ran. Its head was a deformed hybrid—the upper jaw was that of some beast, but the lower jaw was almost human, with a forked tongue burning with pinkish-purple flames protruding from its mouth.

Chaos Spawn.

It wasn't a native demon, but a creature completely twisted by Chaos energy. It was an order of magnitude stronger than a Chaos Hound; its size, strength, and the concentration of Chaos energy were incomparable.

Behind it followed at least fifty Chaos Hounds.

Three Zerglings.

One missing a hind leg.

The Overmind calculated for a second.

Then it issued the command: Retreat.

Not fleeing. The Swarm never flees. Retreating was to lure the enemy into the area covered by the creep—where every inch of ground was The Swarm's home field.

The three Zerglings turned and began to sprint back at full speed.

The Chaos Spawn let out a deafening roar and began the pursuit. Its running speed far exceeded that of the Chaos Hounds—each step covered five or six meters, its exposed muscle fibers tearing and healing, healing and tearing as it ran, leaving a trail of dark red fluid.

One thousand meters.

The Zerglings were falling behind.

Although the Chaos Spawn's size was massive, that abnormal muscular structure gave it incredible explosive power. The distance closed from three hundred meters to two hundred, then to one hundred.

The Overmind's consciousness swept across the area covered by the creep.

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The nearest effective defensive point was still fourteen kilometers away.

Not enough.

"Split up."

Two healthy Zerglings turned simultaneously to the side, fleeing in two different directions.

The one missing its hind legs continued to run in a straight line.

The Chaos Spawn did not hesitate.

It chose the Zergling running in a straight line—the weakest one, led by the strongest scent of blood.

Eighty meters.

Fifty meters.

Just then, the ground suddenly bulged.

It was not a natural phenomenon.

The Overmind's command had reached the edge of the creep six seconds ago—accelerate the secretion of digestive fluids and preheat the defensive system.

The biological acid sacs buried beneath the edge of the creep ruptured the moment the command arrived, and high-concentration corrosive acid spewed out, forming a ten-meter-wide, two-meter-deep acid trench at the edge of the creep.

The Chaos Spawn's giant hoof stepped into the trench.

The acid instantly corroded the skin of its hoof, then the muscle, and then the bone.

The Chaos Spawn let out a roar of pain, but inertia caused its massive body to continue tipping forward.

It tried to brace itself with its forelimbs—the forelimbs also sank into the acid.

The pack of Chaos Hounds tumbled into the trench behind it.

The creep's digestive fluids and defensive acid mixed together, forming a pot of boiling, corrosive slurry.

The bodies of the Chaos Hounds dissolved rapidly in the slurry; their dark red flesh turned into black liquid, and their bones were corroded into a honeycomb structure, crumbling at the slightest touch.

But the Chaos Spawn did not die.

Its body was too massive; the rate of acid corrosion could not keep up with its muscle regeneration rate.

The bones of its forelimbs were already exposed, but new muscle fibers were growing wildly on the surface of the bones—deformed muscles spawned by Chaos energy; although they could not restore their original function, they were enough to support it in crawling out of the trench.

The Chaos Spawn dragged its hind legs, now corroded down to the skeleton, and crawled onto the creep.

A tongue of pinkish-purple flame spewed from its mouth, scorching the creep in front of it.

The hyphae of the creep curled, charred, and turned to ash in the flames—Chaos flames were not flames in the physical sense; their combustion did not require oxygen, and the object of combustion was not matter, but the life force carried by matter itself.

The creep was retreating.

The Overmind watched this scene.

Then it issued a new command.

"All combat units. Target: The Chaos Spawn's oral cavity."

Three Zerglings turned simultaneously.

The one missing its hind legs fell while turning—the wound at the severed limb tore open again, and body fluids gushed out.

But it did not stop.

It propped up its body with its forelimbs and continued to spring forward on its remaining three legs.

The healthy Zerglings arrived at the Chaos Spawn's flank first.

The Chaos Spawn's attention was drawn by the flames on the creep, and it did not defend its flank in time.

The Zergling's bone blade pierced into the gaps in its hind leg muscles—not physical gaps, but structural weaknesses naturally present between the muscle fibers spawned by Chaos energy.

The bone blade cut in along the direction of the muscle bundles, slicing open the entire outer side of the hind leg in one stroke.

The Chaos Spawn turned to counterattack, its massive foreclaws striking at the Zergling.

The Zergling did not dodge—dodging would mean missing the attack window—it charged head-on into the opponent's attack range, its bone blade thrusting directly into the Chaos Spawn's oral cavity.

The forked tongue of flame wrapped around the bone blade.

The metal was enveloped in flames, and the chitin burned, cracked, and disintegrated in the Chaos flames.

The bone blade began to shatter from the tip, turning to ash inch by inch.

The Chaos Spawn shook its head, and the Zergling was flung away, tumbling through the air for over a dozen meters before crashing into a rock.

But just at the moment the Chaos Spawn opened its mouth to shake its head—

The other two Zerglings leaped simultaneously, pouncing into its oral cavity.

One collided with the tongue of flame that was still wrapped around the broken bone blade, its body pierced by the tongue in mid-air.

But the other one—

Leaped into the Chaos Spawn's throat.

The bone blade slashed wildly at the inner wall of the esophagus.

The lattice structure of the Chaos repulsion factor resonated violently in the environment with the highest concentration of Chaos energy; every slash dispersed the local Chaos energy, preventing the wounds on the inner wall of the esophagus from being repaired by Chaos energy.

The Chaos Spawn began to suffocate.

Its internal structure was slashed by the Zergling all the way from the throat to the chest cavity.

The lungs were sliced open, the heart was pierced, and that core maintaining the operation of Chaos energy—a pulsating sarcoma located in the center of the chest cavity—was severed in two by the bone blade.

Chaos energy began to spiral out of control.

The uncontrolled Chaos energy no longer repaired the host's body, but instead backlashed.

The Chaos Spawn's muscle fibers began to tear from the inside, its bones were shattered by the flow of its own energy, and layers of purplish-black cysts welled up under its skin; every time a cyst ruptured, it sprayed out corrosive pus.

It melted in the backlash of its own energy.

Five minutes later, the pack of Chaos Hounds was completely wiped out.

Ten minutes later, the remains of the Chaos Spawn were covered by the creep.

Thirty-seven minutes later, the first batch of reinforcement Zerglings broke out of their cocoons from the hatchery, twelve in total, with intact carapaces and sharp bone blades.

The Overmind's consciousness swept across the battlefield.

The Chaos Spawn's genetic information was being fed into the analysis sacs via the hyphal network.

That regenerative ability that spawned muscles was too unstable to be integrated directly—but the core mechanism could be extracted.

The generation structure of the Chaos flames also had research value—not to replicate the Chaos flames, but to understand their principles and find a way to become completely immune to them.

One kilometer away, at the edge of the acid trench, the creep was beginning to spread again.

The land scorched by the Chaos flames would need an extra three days to recover its fertility.

But the creep did not care about time.

The Swarm never lacked patience.

The Overmind's consciousness extended toward the north.

The Chaos Cultist's nest was still further north.

The Chaos Spawn that appeared this time was just a sentry.

Next time—what would it be?

The mouthpiece of Chaos had said: "My master has sent better hunters."

One of the Four Chaos Gods.

The will of some god had already taken notice of The Swarm.

The Overmind had not failed to deal with powerful enemies before.

In the Koprulu Sector, it had faced psionics, technology, and the Protoss Golden Armada.

But Chaos was different.

It was not an army, not a civilization, but a natural force of the universe—like entropy increase, like the one-way flow of time, unavoidable, eternally existing.

Fighting Chaos could not rely on the victory of a single battle.

It had to rely on evolution.

The Overmind began new genetic experiments.

The Chaos Hound's pain-suppression neural structure—extract, purify.

The Chaos Spawn's muscle explosive power—extract, remove dependence on Chaos energy.

The generation principle of Chaos flames—research, find an immunity path.

Human genetic brain structure—analyze, understand the emotional operation mode of intelligent life, and reverse-engineer the first step of the Chaos corruption invasion mechanism.

Inside the hatchery, new larvae were forming in the incubation chambers.

The genetic templates for this batch of larvae had already begun integrating the first stage of "Chaos Adaptation" modifications.

Their carapaces would be harder.

Their regeneration would be faster.

Their tolerance for Chaos energy would be higher—not to be corrupted, but to remain genetically stable after contact with Chaos energy.

This was the survival way of The Swarm.

In a universe surrounded by Chaos, either evolve or perish.

And The Swarm—

Never knew what perishing meant.

The purple shimmer of the creep spread across the surface.

In the distance, on the horizon to the north of the planet, a point of pinkish-purple flame lit up in the mist formed by condensed Chaos energy.

That spark of fire was like an eye.

It was watching The Swarm.

The Overmind's consciousness looked back calmly.

"The Swarm sees you."

Then, millions of light-years away, at the edge of the Empire—an Inquisition black ship was sailing in the Warp lanes.

Inside the bridge, an Inquisitor was reviewing a report sent by a border patrol team.

The report included a scanned image of that dead silent planet: purple creep covered a large area of the surface, like a purple scar on the planet's surface.

"New Xenos." The Inquisitor closed the report, "Request support from the Grey Knights."

The ship continued to sail toward the star system where The Swarm was located.

The three forces were slowly converging.

And the creep of The Swarm was spreading inch by inch.