--

As expected, the longer this goes on, the worse it gets.

The Bug Empress was producing more and more of her children. Each minute that passes, the number of bugs she unleashes rises incrementally. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

Nicholas and his fellow councillors could still handle them just fine, but they definitely can’t allow this to go on. This can’t be dragged on because the Bug Empress can create limitless amounts of bugs.

And while it is obvious that, if they wanted to stop her from producing more bugs, they just have to attack her instead, in reality, it’s not that easy.

It’s not like the Bug Empress was just standing there, womb out, and ceaselessly discharging her children all over them. Her position might look incredibly exposed and vulnerable, but the truth is, she’s well defended.

The Bug Empress isn’t stupid. She knows that she’s the key figure of her kind; any injuries or threats to her life pose a great risk to her entire race. Knowing this, how can she not prioritize her safety? And even if she doesn’t, her children will definitely throw away their lives in exchange for hers. The bugs were expendable, but their empress is not.

If she could be easily killed, the councillors would’ve done it before. Unfortunately, she isn’t.

"Hold them off; I’ll try something," Gibson suddenly told his comrades.

He received no replies, but their actions showed their agreement. His teammates covered for him whilst he assembled something on the fly.

The tsunami of bugs kept coming; they seemed to be almost unstoppable, but with the efforts of the councillors, they were still contained in one place; not a single one escaped their immediate area.

Meanwhile, Gibson’s machines flew everywhere. At first, it seemed like they were luring some of them away, but that’s not the case. Instead, he’s driving them to key locations to accomplish his plans.

Once his machines were in place, a terrifying flush of origin energy pulsed out of Gibson’s body.

This had a strong effect, not just on the immediate vicinity, but on the entirety of the chaos realm. Everybody who’s slightly attuned to the movements of the world could sense this. They may not understand what’s going on completely, but they’d still be able to tell that something big was happening.

It was here that his plan was finally revealed.

With his machines melding with space, time, and history, he anchored the immediate area in place and built a prison out of it. Space was then folded multiple times, forming a thin and almost imperceptible barrier that contained the Bug Empress and her children within.

Any bug that dared to escape the prison will find itself traversing an impassable spatial blockade, one that infinitely loops on itself.

Gibson drained at least half of his entire origin energy reserves at once to create this blockade, so its quality and durability cannot be doubted. Even the Bug Empress herself will find it difficult to tear this apart; much less needs to be said for her children.

Sure, she could keep on creating more bugs. She could probably create so much to completely fill out this folded and anchored space, and that might actually do the trick. After all, no method was absolute; every prison has a way out, they just need to be discovered.

But Gibson knows the Bug Empress. Again, this isn’t the first time they fought. He knows that she’s crazy and also knows what she’s capable of. He knows that she’s much stronger than him and more arrogant too.

More importantly, he knows that even though the Bug Empress is in a semi-invincible state right now as she discharges bugs like a goddamn fountain, she’s actually immobilized. He also knows that once she’s in this position, it wouldn’t be easy, even for her, to stop it.

With this move, he neutralized the Bug Empress’ plan to force them into choosing. Gibson contained her and her bugs in one place, allowing them to control their population and preventing them from unleashing destruction elsewhere.

"Can you open up a hole in there? I want to drop some nasties in," Berk asked Gibson.

To which he said, "There, go for it."

Berk sensed the opening that Gibson left for him. So, with a sharp whistle, he called on one of his children.

What responded to his call was a seemingly innocuous and harmless creature. It was a tiny frog, covered with bright orange warts, and had bright green skin that looked as if it were radioactive.

"Holy shit! Where did you get that thing?" Urek exclaimed upon seeing the creature, flinching as if he were looking at a horrible monster.

"Not important." Berk shrugged. He then turned to the tiny frog, his eyes softened and turned misty before telling it, "I’m sorry, little one, but the situation is rather dire, and we really need your help."

Croak!

Nobody could understand what the frog said, not even Berk himself. But it didn’t matter. Berk brought it close to the opening, where it hopped in and disappeared in the sea of bugs trying to escape.

The reaction was instant...

One bug swallowed it whole, and in that same instant, bright orange warts appeared all over its body. The bug stilled and suddenly released a piercing shriek before the warts all over its body exploded and killed it.

The discharge from the explosion of warts spurted to the nearby bugs, who then grew the same warts and exploded all the same.

"Gibson, seal that space tight. Absolutely do not allow anything out of there, not even a fart," Urek warned strongly.

"I know," Gibson solemnly replied as he watched the beginning of chaos unfolding within the space he’s in.

A chain reaction occurred then. One bug after another exploded due to the infectious warts. It didn’t discriminate either; big or small, anything that’s touched by the discharge grew the same warts and exploded to death right after. The only minor difference is the length of time they’re able to remain alive after being infected. Even then, it wasn’t really that much.

Furthermore, as more bugs died from the warts, their bodies also left a cloud of noxious fumes that are getting thicker and thicker the more of them die. Inhaling these fumes will have a similar effect, which is the growth of fast-acting explosive warts all over their body.

Seeing the symphony of explosive warts, Berk wiped the tear he shed from the sacrifice of his tiny child.

This frog, as cute and harmless as it seemed at first glance, was, in truth, a mythical creature, one whose kind are incredibly elusive and endangered.

Because of how elusive they were, many people didn’t know that they existed; hence, they were never studied or named properly. Berk did name his frog ’Greg,’ though, and he called his kind the Doom Warts Frog.

Greg’s warts, as seen on the "What’s Happening Inside Gibson’s Prison," were incredibly infectious. Greg, while alive, can infect anything it sees. He didn’t need to touch them or even be close to them. If he sees or senses that anything nearby poses harm to him, he will just grow the same warts he had.

It’s nonsensical because it doesn’t just affect living beings. Greg and his kind could infect anything, save for conceptual laws.

Speaking of concept laws, though, don’t think that they’re safe from Greg. He can invalidate their existence as he pleases. Which means that it doesn’t matter if his target was validated by the laws to be immune to all poisons or harm, Greg doesn’t fucking care. If it scares him and poses a threat to him, it will grow exploding warts.

That’s the type of mythical creature Greg and his kind were, and Berk treated him like a treasure. Only a handful of people knew Greg and his species. Berk himself had to be very careful when handling Greg, and the fact that he hasn’t died yet proved that he did something right.

The others are also aware of Greg’s existence, especially Urek, since he had once barely escaped one of Greg’s cousins’ wrath; it’s an episode of his life that he never wanted to recall. That’s why he strongly reacted to Greg’s appearance.

But the most terrifying thing about Greg’s abilities was his postmortem curse.

If he’s killed or eaten by another creature, that creature will not only die seconds after him due to the warts infecting them. Greg also curses their entire bloodline.

The symphony of warts happening within Gibson’s prison was just a happy coincidence; with how small the space there is for them to move and how concentrated they were, the chain reaction was almost a given. The real threat lies in the postmortem curse.

Greg’s postmortem curse is, of course, warts.

Even without Greg or his family there to infect them, their killer’s bloodline will be cursed to grow deadly warts until they’re brought to extinction.

And this postmortem curse is already taking place elsewhere: on the frontlines, where the Space Marines continue to gun down the bugs occupying them, and in the home of the Horde.

The curse was so pervertedly domineering that the Bug Empress was finally forced to do something about it.