Chapter 694: The Hive Mind: A Bunch of Super-Males, That

“Fugen.”

A hoarse whisper emerged from the hybrid creature before Fugen—composed of Fabius, the Jifu , and the Norn Queen.

The Hive Mind clearly recognized Fabius’s value; it consumed him but did not destroy him, instead reshaping him into this form to serve itself with his will, his intellect, and his understanding of biological genetics.

The massive egg sacs hanging from Fabius’s abdomen writhed and convulsed; one follicle rapidly formed a Tyranid creature, bursting free.

It was a four-limbed Tyranid behemoth, but instead of the usual scythe-claws at its front, it bore a pair of rending claws resembling wolf paws; its head was larger than a typical Tyranid’s, faintly bearing canine traits, its mouth lined with rows of serrated fangs, and faint traces of psychic organs visible behind its skull.

The Tyranid behemoth lunged forward like a great wolf across a snowfield, targeting Fugen and his Phoenix Sons squad.

Its rending claws slashed, unleashing a blizzard of winter’s fury upon Fugen and the Phoenix Sons.

But just before the claws struck, the Furnace Hammer erupted into a blinding storm of hammerblows, blocking those razor-sharp claws.

“Luth,” Fugen murmured softly, naming his savage brother—he instantly recognized whose genetic sequence had been integrated into this Tyranid.

At the very moment Fugen uttered the name, the Tyranid opened its mouthparts; its massive head unfurled like a blooming petal, revealing a maw larger than Fugen’s own body, teeming with dense spines, hooked tongues, and jagged quills—these countless predatory organs surged toward him like a pack of wolves.

Thanks to Fabius’s past teachings, Fugen quickly discerned the design: this monstrous beast was modeled after the Tyranid Gargant, modified with Luth’s genetic sequence to become a gluttonous horror.

“No wonder he’s the galaxy’s greatest glutton—even as a worm, Luth was always the one who ate the most.”

Fugen laughed aloud; orange-red flames erupted from the Furnace Hammer, scorching the grotesque feeding orifices, forcing them to recoil several centimeters. Seizing the moment, Fugen blurred forward, exposing Luth-beast’s massive maw to the Phoenix Sons.

In an instant, a dense net of firepower wove through the air, striking Luth-beast.

But Luth-beast’s beastly eyes contracted sharply; a surge of psychic energy erupted, forming a barrier that instantly blocked the Phoenix Sons’ volleys.

Yet the court swordsmen among the Phoenix Sons blurred forward, piercing through the psychic barrier—each wielded a phased weapon provided by the Necrons, their emerald blades humming as they stabbed into Luth-beast’s body.

Luth-beast was forced to dodge, barely escaping the web of blades.

Though this beast used Luth’s genetic sequence, it was vastly inferior to the real Luth—even weaker than a pure clone.

Fabius dared not create a pure clone, for the Primarch’s genetic sequence was too potent; mere instinct and genetic memory alone could resist the Hive Mind’s control.

A fully cloned Primarch would never submit to the Hive Mind’s dominion; driven by its innate instincts, it would likely treat the swarm as enemies.

Even these Tyranids partially infused with Primarch genes required Fabius to expend mental energy to suppress their genetic memories and instincts.

Fugen left Luth-beast to the Phoenix Sons and charged alone toward Fabius.

But the ground trembled and collapsed; a serpentine Tyranid erupted from directly beneath Fugen’s feet—clearly a Digging Serpent, yet unlike any ordinary one: its entire body was armored in thick carapace, its head covered by a hood-like shell; its six scythe-limbs had atrophied into elongated tentacles, each sprouting grotesque venom glands that extended along its back, forming swollen tumor-like masses that spewed thick clouds of toxic mist, corroding the ground around it.

Its tail was no longer a spike, but a massive, razor-sharp bio-scythe, wreathed in clouds of poison, lashing toward Fugen.

Clearly, this creature’s base was the Digging Serpent, fused with elements of the Noxious Miasma, and infused with Mortarion’s genetic sequence, granting it extraordinary resilience and toxin resistance.

Precisely because of the toxin resistance granted by Mortarion’s genetic sequence, this Digging Serpent could produce several toxins the Hive Mind had designed long ago but could never synthesize—poisons engineered by an extragalactic race to resist the Tyranids, immensely potent, lethal even to other Tyranids if they attempted to produce them.

The toxic mist approaching Fugen contained billions of nanoscale creatures; each nanite secreted highly concentrated corrosive fluid and used DNA-sized biological coils within its body to generate propulsion, driving microscopic drills at its front into targets.

In an instant, a dense foam erupted across Fugen’s power armor.

Fugen realized this Mortarion Serpent had been meticulously engineered by Fabius and the Hive Mind—its strength far exceeded that of the previous Luth-beast.

Fugen hastily retreated, seeking distance from the Mortarion Serpent.

But the Mortarion Serpent’s tail lashed violently, its razor scythe sweeping toward Fugen with a completely different toxin.

Within these nanites, the biological coils ejected a positron and an electron; the two particles annihilated instantly, releasing 551 kiloelectronvolts of energy. Countless nanites fused together, and blinding light erupted from the scythe, instantly engulfing Fugen’s body.

Yet Fugen’s form pierced through the light and the poison at a speed the monstrous worm could not react to, appearing before it in a flash.

Beside Fugen, a miniature Doraemon held an adaptive lamp, silently illuminating Fugen before vanishing into thin air.

The Mortarion Serpent reacted swiftly; its hood-like carapace snapped shut, shielding its brain.