Blightwar (2017), p20 — Before the Gate

The Whirlwind Axes swinging, Neave Blacktalon hacked down every daemon within reach. The Shadowhammers shot their way out of their encirclement, their Vanguard-Palladors wind-shifting straight through the daemon lines. Though many Stormcasts fell, Horticulous' trap had failed.

Filled with anger and determination, the Knight-Zephyros led her surviving warriors in the final advance on the Emberwash Realmgate. Spreading her Rangers out and watching for danger, Neave moved up the last, steep stretch of the old road and into the rocky ruins at its summit.

Ahead, she saw the Realmgate. Its structure shuddered and groaned, bilious light spilling from it. Miasmal spore clouds and thrumming storms of flies spilled from within. Meanwhile, foul-looking plant life squirmed up from the ground all around. Dripping lianas colied up around the Realmgate's arched lintel. Shuddering feverblooms burst from between its stones.

Neave had seen all of this before, too many times to count. She recognised that the sowing was in its final stages, and that the Realmgate was beyond saving. All that she and her comrades could do was halt the ritual before the gate burst like an overripe fruit and the Garden of Nurgle spilled forth to destroy the entire region.

Neave's first priority, however, was still Horticulous. The daemon had to be banished, lest this terrible spectacle happen again and again. The Grand Cultivator was there, half visible through the choking spore clouds, the whirling flies and the driving rain. His surviving daemons drew up in a slouching battle line, determined to hold off the Stormcasts long enough for their master to finish his work.

Ordering her warriors to see to the daemons' destruction, Neave accelerated into a lightning-fast charge. Axes in hand, she raced for Horticulous Slimux. Seeing her coming, the Daemon reared up to his full height, shears snicking open and shut, and prepared to deal with his relentless hunter once and for all...