It was a dark and cold night, and only a few dozen fires were still burning on the houses.

On the walls defending the town, a few figures with heavy winter clothes were drinking and playing card games. One of them, a medium age man that had seen more than 30 winters, got out to pee and nearly lost his dick to the cold.

As he was moving back to the slightly less cold watchtower, he noticed small figures moved through the night.

“What the… did someone let out the cattle in the middle of the night?”

He sighed and kept moving, thinking that the old farmer had left his cattle out again through the night. Poor bastard.

Yet he frowned as the creatures moved closer to the town. He reached his side and took a badly damaged binocular. The lens was so damaged that he could not see them at all, much less with so little light.

He took a flashlight and shoot it, illuminating the immediate area outside of the walls. And what he saw wasn’t cattle at all. There were green bums of putrid flesh. “No… it can’t be!”

He began to count and saw more than a dozen one meter tall creatures. They were fat, even bloated as if their insides and bowels had expanded beyond any possible limit.

The man gulped and was about to begin shooting at them when he noticed huge and heavy steps.

* Thump, Thump, Thump!

He took a few steps back, as a giant 3-meter tall creature appeared and laughed.

“HO, HO, HO!!”

“F-fuck! T-they are back!!”

The man suddenly noticed that each of the other watchtowers had the lights off and started to run towards the one he was responsible for.

He halted in his steps as there was a small and bloated green creature there, looking at him. Despite the terrible wind and cold, he could smell a weak rotting smell, and he knew that this winter, the servants of the Grandfather had come again to spread their wicked toys in town.

He began to cough and noticed blood falling from his nose.

“Aghh… damn foul creatures!” The little grotesque being was grinning and smiling at him as if his death was the best thing that could have happened to the man’s night.

All he had to do was try to reach the button and give the alert. Otherwise, the whole town would perish tomorrow morning, once they began to open cursed and putrid presents given by these twisted devils, servants of Nurgle himself, lord of Diseases.

They had visited this town before, always the same night of the year, when the day was shorter, and the winter colder. And they always brought presents for everyone in town.

“You twisted creature!! Let me show you my present!”

The small copy of the chaos god, a Nurgling, smiled even more as if expecting a great surprise.

Yet the man simply took the shotgun that he always carried on duty and blew the head of the monster off with a double shoot.

* Ban-BAANG!!

Green and yellowish ichor spread everywhere. The body fell backward with its arms still moving, trying to search its head.

He tried to move into the watchtower, but he suddenly felt his lungs slowly collapsing, getting filled with mucus and blood. After four or five steps, he fell to the ground, fighting to breathe.

The man put a hand on his heavy jacket and took a picture of a little kid.

“I-I’m sorry, pumpkin. Daddy won’t make it home tonight. Chooghh…”

He began crying and kissed the photo, and let it fly through the storm. This time, his eyes shone with the blazing light of fervor and pulled the string of a grenade he carried with him.

More Nurglings began to climb the wall and surrendered the dying man. They were all short and had horns erupting from their heads in twisted and weird ways. Some had two eyes, others had up to seven. But all of them had a rotten smile on their putrid faces.

“For the Empe-ror…”

As the pin fell to the snow, he simply closed his eyes, dying shortly after on the freezing wall.

* BOAAAAAMMM!!!

The wall suddenly exploded, demolishing the watchtower and throwing bits and pieces of the lesser demons’ bodies in a ten-meter radius.

The storm carried away most of the explosion's noise. But the loud sound and the tremor were enough to wake up a few of the towns’ more paranoid citizens, that knew this was a bad day to sleep.

One of the few vigilant ones was the Priest of the Church, which saw the explosion far on the North-West wall. He began to hit the town’s bell.

Afterward, the town’s Mayor woke up in her two-story house, and after two minutes, she exited her house while carrying a heavy flamethrower. She was together with her husband and their two sons, each carrying a different heavy weapon.

“OH, NO! WAKE UP, EVERYONE!!! WAKE UP!!”

She soon reached her office at the town’s square that was just a couple streets from her house and rang a town alarm.

A huge siren began to sound together with the Emperor’s church bells and started to wake up the sleepy town in the middle of the night. A few men and women got out of their homes as the kids sleepily followed them, only to be scolded and sent back to their houses.

Half of the town got their weapons near their beds, and the other half slept with them on the bed, so it was no surprise each and every adult had either a gun, a rifle, or some other weapon.

“What’s happening?! Mayor? Why are the alarms on?”

“Damn!! We were in the middle of-”

“Mooommyyyy!! Is it time to go to the Church!?”

The town was a mess, yet when the doors were heavily kicked, every adult above 14 loaded their weapons and began to prepare to defend the town square. The kids between 8 and 13 were in charge of gathering every small kid and move them to the Church.

Over a thousand souls lived here and had suffered a couple of minor demonic invasions before, so they were quite adept at what to do and how to fend off the servants of the chaos gods.

“Where are the guards?! What happened at the watchtowers?”

They illuminated the town square and prepared a frame for the only Autocannon in their village.

“HO, HO, HO… OPEN UP, MORTALS!! I bring presents!!”

The Mayor searched for the Priest.

"Priest! Take you used to be a soldier, right?!"

"I was, Mayor, many years ago."

"Then use the Autocannon and blast that Demon out of my town!! Understood?! I will keep the small ones busy!"

The man smiled with a heavy look and began to roar orders to some still sleepy citizens.

She left the man in charge of such a critical duty. This man had turned into priesthood after many wars and was a veteran more than an ecclesiarchy goon, so the Mayor breathed relieved, but only for half a second. Some huge creature began to knock on the town's doors.

* Baaang!! BaanG!!! BAAAANG!!!

“HOO! HOOOO! HOOOOOO!!! Santa Nurgle Claus has come to town!! Is anybody home?!"

Yet no answer was heard, and the Demon of Nurgle kept hitting the doors. After a while, he stopped, and the people looked confused. They then saw small figures flying through the night.

* Wiiiii!!! WOOOOO!!!!

Sudden sounds of laughter and joy were heard as lesser demons were thrown over the walls, falling over the roofs and houses.

The Mayor then rushed forward with her husband and kids and began to blast terrible shots at the smaller creatures with rage.

“Kill those Nurglings!! Kill them before they infect the town!!”

A massive amount of shots began to pour down the small creatures that jumped joyfully while they run clumsily, trying to deliver presents at each house. They threw the boxes and bags through the chimneys, windows, and even breaking parts of the roof.

The unfortunate people too old to move or too scared to leave their homes began to suffer all kinds of nightmarish diseases once the boxes fell on their homes and opened up their toxic and bile presents.

Putrid snakes, Cans of worms, Mucus slime that moved on its own, and many more objects. Each of them was dangerous, deadly, and filled with diseases.

Dozens of people began to cough and bleed, rot and cry as their bodies began to get blessed by the toys and presents of Grandfather Nurgle.

A few minutes later, the citizens began to see the corpses walking out of their houses and moved towards the fighting people. The furthest ones got overrun by the many plagued humans, and by when the Mayor saw them, she cursed and took a flamethrower.

She then approached the dead residents and turned them into ashes.

That really pissed her, as she had fought every vote on this town.

A Nurgling then jumped at her from a rooftop. Her husband saw it and jumped, only to be stabbed by a small, crooked candy.

“NOOO!!” She then melted the smiling and half deformed face of the creature with her weapon.

She ducked to see his husband convulsing and screaming in pain as his body began to decompose from the inside out, and the Mayor could do nothing to save him.

She roared and cried, but her two sons rushed to take her away. The Priest saw that and muttered a silent prayer to the man's soul.

"There's no time to cry, Mayor!" The woman heard his words, and with a heart-breaking roar, burned the corpse of her loved one before it could rise up as a rotten monster.

Her sons began to shoot a load of bullets at the Nurglings and dead citizens, blaming themselves for not being able to help their father.

As the battle was turning cruder in the city, the Great Demon began to hit the doors again, and after a few more strikes, it managed to burst the reinforced plasteel doors open.

* “HO, HO, H-” BAAAAM!

The Priest pulled the trigger of the Autocannon and hit the Great Demon's head, blowing part of its skull as it laughed, disregarding the terrible injury. The monster began to advance through the doors with a swarm of Nurglings.

“Mayor! Let’s kill this abomination!! For the Emperor!!”

The Mayor stood up with the help of her two sons, and together with half of the remaining citizens, they began to pour heavy fire at the creature. The Great Demon had to stop for a few seconds and rose its hand to protect its smiling putrid face.

* BAAAAM!

Another massive shot from the Autocannon pierced the Demon's stomach.

"PRIEST! Aim at the fucking head!!" The Major turned white when she saw the rotten insides of the creature spill on the floor.

From the Demon's insides, more Nurglings began to appear, sliding by his intestines and jumping up and down on the muddy puddles of bloody ichor.

“Ho, Ho, Ho!! No time to play, kids!! We have presents to deliv-!!”

* BAAAM!!!

“Uughh!! You’re on the naughty list, Priest!”

With a mildly annoyed growl, the monster moved his left hand towards its belly and began searching for something. A few seconds later, it took a piece of rusted metal. It was an unholy Bilesword, blessed by Nurgle.

The moment the sword was brandished, the bodies of every living or dead creature infected began to grow flies and insects that flew to attack the former allies.

“HO, HO, HO!!! Wonderful! Let's carry the joy and wonder of the Grandfather to this town!!”

More and more town’s citizens were taken down by the insects, the infected humans, or the rotting touch of the demons. The Mayor had to use her flamethrower without a stop to keep the swarms of flies at bay, burning hundreds of those vile creatures each second.

"My sons, protect the Priest!! Kill that Demon, whatever it takes!! I will give you enough time!" The woman kissed each of their son's forehead and changed the tank of her flamethrower.

She then began to walk forward, attracting the attention of each insect, human or Nurgling nearby, before using a few grenades to blow herself with the monsters in a desperate last stand.

* BOOOOM!!!!!

Her sons, together with the remaining survivors, had made a circle near the Autocannon, as it was the only thing that could possibly take down the creature.

“For the Emperor!! Kill those demons!”

The Priest roared as his hands burned from the overheated metal from the Autocannon. He had been pouring loads of bullets at the body of the creature. The rusty and ancient cannon cried and menaced with breaking apart at each shot, but the blessings from the Priest seemed to be working, as the bullets kept hitting their enemy.

Still, the monster did not care when one leg was blown, or his right arm was burned. It merely continued walking forward, tearing down full houses and groups of defenders with each sword strike.

The Priest then heard shouts and screams from the Church and turned with a worried expression.

"HO! HO! HOOOO!! Your present has already been sent to the Church, Priest!! Those young kids are enjoying it on your behalf!!"

At this moment, the Priest's mind when blank.

He saw himself punch one of the two sons of the Major, run past the hands of the defendants and rush towards the Church's door.

When he arrived, he saw the smiling and decaying faces of the kids running at him. He could not even try to push them away, as he felt the bliss of Nurgle's present entering his lungs with each breath.

The man knew it was too late when he began to run, and from the lack of more shots from the Autocannon, it was clear the town had failed.

But they had fought off through the night, and with the rising sun, this particular Demon called his troops back to the realm of the Grandfather to prepare for the next difficult present delivery night.

It was the same each year, the humans were too humble to easily accept the presents, but at the end of the night, they always loved them.

---------------

Walking down the snowy road from the town, a little girl walked as a broken toy, unable to comprehend the horrors she had witnessed.

On her hands, she carried the bloodied picture of her with a man.