Lords: From Civilization to the Stars.

Chapter 129 Blood mist fills the air

The empire is in turmoil.

Although this sentence has been said for nearly a thousand years, it is never too late to say it. Because the Empire is indeed in a precarious situation. Those former Chaos enemies, those Norscan pirates, and the green-skinned orcs rushing out of the Blackfire Gorge, those various undead creatures entrenched in the south of the Empire, and the Chaos villains, bandits, and even mysterious forest elves that have grown in the vast territory of the Empire.

The rule of the empire is often like a corrupt giant, looking at its own corpse spots helplessly, but still moving forward powerfully. Because although the empire is close to decay and collapse, the huge population, the powerful war weapons, and their blood allied dwarves are supporting their bones.

No matter how the flesh and blood become corrupted, as long as their bones, those endless humans in the empire do not fall, as long as the Elector and the empire as a whole do not collapse, the empire will continue forever.

At least, that's what the current Imperials believe.

The invasion of the Chaos warbands, which was once the closest to the end of the world, was ultimately defeated by the Wall of Faith. The high wall standing in the north blocked the invasion of Chaos, but it also blocked the Kislevites to a certain extent.

Those warriors who stood at the forefront of the Chaos War in the ice and snow were naturally blocked outside the Wall of Faith by the Imperials, which almost led to the destruction of Kislev. Even though the subsequent events have become history now, the Kislevites will never believe in the Empire's promises again.

However, they claim to be the people of the bear god Ursun, and they continue to sacrifice their blood and lives for their mother Kislev. Whether they are willing or not, objectively speaking, they will always support the existence of the empire. They are the huge defense line of the empire against the Chaos warbands in the north. Although the coastline of the empire has been repeatedly robbed and invaded by various Norse pirates, they are also maintaining their own survival.

The Empire can often judge the strategic strength of the other side and respond and change accordingly. For suspicious trade areas like Marienburg, the Empire has not made any drastic moves.

After all, for today's empire, it is a very satisfying thing for them to be able to stand for a thousand years in this precarious world.

However, now the various news coming from the outside world have obviously put a huge burden on the empire's intelligence system.

The first source of intelligence came a year ago. People claimed that a strange organization appeared in the area called Chaos Wasteland, further north of Norsca. The people in this organization claimed that they could bring a better life to the Norscans and fight against the sea elves at the same time.

At first, people didn't realize what this strange organization was, nor did they think it could accomplish anything. Every now and then, some crazy wizards would create some organizations in various places.

You don't know why wizards always have strange and bizarre ideas in their heads, but they just feel that their achievements are higher than everyone else.

Often, the organizations created by wizards would fall into some strange disputes and choices. Then, in the endless internal friction, verbal abuse, and framing each other with sweet words and intrigues, they gradually fell apart in this environment and no longer had any voice. This is the most common ending of wizard organizations.

Although this wizard organization seemed unprecedentedly powerful, the Empire did not take such a sloganeering organization seriously. A large organization must have at least several decades or even hundreds of years of operation to become an organization with some reputation in the Empire. This was only the first step.

The major factions that have stood in this world, even the youngest ones, have existed for hundreds of years.

However, the various messages that were subsequently transmitted caused the empire's intelligence department to suffer several setbacks in succession.

First of all, the Negative Stars are not a human organization at all. They are officially under the banner of the elves. Although I don’t know why they claim to be the most orthodox inheritors of human culture, their citizens are indeed all elves. However, why they call themselves humans is still a complete mystery.

Then, the Phoenix King's care for this organization is extraordinary. Even when the elves and the dwarves fought the Ancient War, there was probably no such progress in the transportation of materials. In the middle and late stages, the Silent King Olivien simply stopped hiding and directly took his fleet to trade with the Gold Fleet of the Negative Stars overseas.

Some people claim that they are exchanging elves for elves, but this sounds crazy, so it is not considered. However, most people believe that the Negative Stars are an organization created by the Phoenix King.

The purpose is clear based on the character of the current Phoenix King. It is probably to give the elves more ecological vitality, or to give young elves a certain degree of help and encouragement. Even humans have heard of the story of Olivien the Silent. This crazy Phoenix King even tried to shut up all the elves he thought were impure forever, but no matter how he tried to assassinate them, this Phoenix King would come back alive.

Therefore, after careful analysis and judgment, human diplomats and intelligence officials finally concluded that the Negative Stars were most likely the elves' intention to use the model of a new force to change the outdated malpractices of the past and adopt a new model to fight against the Chaos Demons.

This is good news, and everyone likes it. They don't think it's a big deal. Elves and demons are old rivals, and they have nothing to do with the empire.

But the series of big news made the empire unable to sit still.

The first is the migration of the underground kingdom.

The end has not come, but the ratmen and the empire do know each other. The empire is extremely troubled by the countless sneaky rats hiding underground in its own land, and often sends witch hunters and mercenaries to hunt these infinitely multiplying monsters. But recently, they officially sent diplomatic envoys to come.

These rats claimed that they wanted to return to their homeland, to the Skaven capital. But this was not without cost, the rats demanded that each underground city let the Empire pay ten carts of Warp Stone.

This was a very good deal, and the ratmen took a soul oath in the name of the Horned Rat.

After many generations of wizards and gods' attention and improvement, the soul oath is no longer a simple thing as before, but it really involves faith and the connection between gods. Swearing in the name of gods proves that the ratmen are serious about leaving the empire this time.

This made the electors overjoyed, and they hurriedly gathered thousands of carts of dimensional stones. However, after the largest wave of dimensional stones was sent out, the envoys and related members of the rat people suddenly disappeared mysteriously one day. After people bravely went to the underground kingdom, they found that the huge and crisscrossed underground kingdom network had been abandoned at some point. Only the passage leading to the deep center of the earth was blocked by the dragon-breaking stone.

These daring Skaven ratmen sensed something, so they simply gave up the operation of all underground kingdoms within the imperial territory and fled without even saying goodbye.

This was totally inconsistent with the characteristics of the Skaven. These treacherous Skaven would take risks even if there was a one in ten thousand chance. But the current move of disappearing without a word was not in line with the Skaven's tradition. Unless these Skaven firmly believed that no matter what they did, they could not make up for the problem.

Only under such conditions would the Skaven abandon everything without hesitation and start running away.

Just when everyone in the empire was feeling somewhat uncertain, the wood elves hiding in the forest also began to make unusual movements. These long-eared elves who had lived in the forest before the establishment of the empire came out of the forest one after another, and began to board boats transformed from natural trees and headed towards Ulthuan, the gathering place of the elves. They claimed that the purity of the elves had begun, and the original corruption had gradually been purified.

The Wood Elves didn't know why, but they believed that a huge pure ritual was waiting for them. After the Wood Elves left, unwilling to be involved in the war, the Orcs left next. Those arrogant and warlike Greenskins claimed that the war in the Badlands attracted their attention more, so countless clans began to head south.

Suddenly, it seemed that apart from the chaotically evolved beastmen and local rubbish such as bandits and vampires, there were no other monsters in the entire empire. The problems that had plagued the empire for countless years just disappeared.

However, the good times did not last long. With the beginning of the great conquest of the Norse Hell Peaks, the empire began to feel a heavy pressure.

Artillery that was as accurate as their own wisdom, unimaginable arrays and weapons, and the unreserved malice towards Chaos and the determination to destroy Chaos. When the Negative Stars truly demonstrated their strength, the shock was beyond epochs.

The observers had never seen such a battlefield. The iron rain from the sky extinguished the demons' fire, and countless pale and terrifying warriors wearing heavy rune armor walked out of the steel meteorites, using weapons that released light and heat to eliminate the demons one by one. In many cases, their attacks even affected the imperial army.

Of course, according to the video footage provided by the Negative Star, most of the time the Imperial Army overestimated their capabilities, or received some secret orders, and planned to capture the Norse villages one step ahead. However, once Chaos pollution was discovered, these elves would launch an iron bombing without hesitation, blowing all enemies back into a state of minced meat. It would be nonsense to say that they could stabilize at this time.

But their army was attacked, and this kind of thing could not be a trivial matter for diplomacy. After the human electors completely ignored the diplomatic note initiated by Phoenix King Oliver, they decided to solve the problem themselves.

The Negative Star represents the will of the Phoenix King. Although the current Phoenix King is probably a madman, he is still the Phoenix King. Humans are not ready for a full-scale war with the elves, not to mention that the behavior of the Negative Star elves can be described as extremely weird. The electors must face the possible crisis of the empire like in ancient times, and finally choose a strong emperor to make the final decision.

So within a month, the various electors set out one after another and gradually gathered in the cathedral of Migheim. These electors holding the Rune Fang will have a secret discussion in a closed-door meeting, and finally compete for an emperor with real leadership significance, and then lead the empire out of the current crisis. Even if the emperor is not elected, he will definitely bring good news.

Inside the cathedral, there was a guard every three steps and a sentry every five steps. The magic barrier and chaos detection barrier were always open. There were also hundreds of witch hunters, secretive figures that were rarely seen in normal times, who were investigating and monitoring everywhere.

However, just as the electors began to discuss how to deal with the negative star inside the Imperial Patron Saint Cathedral, a small team of people transporting cultural relics and magic school props also happened to arrive inside the cathedral. This small convoy with the Imperial Magic School logo was in a mess and finally arrived in front of the cathedral.

However, the group of people looked at the stern guards and couldn't help but reveal a look of despair. It was obvious at a glance that an important person was definitely here to discuss something. But three months ago, no one told them that an important person would come to discuss things at this time?

Moreover, the sealing of the relic has reached a critical time. If it is delayed, I am afraid that a big problem will arise.

"...You said that the Book of the Dead in your hands is being pulled by the vampires using secret magic. If you don't put it in, an undead plague will break out and curse the current land?"

The officer in charge of guarding the site looked at the escort team members in front of him with a strange expression on his face.

"Ah."

The members of the cultural relics escort team were exhausted and nodded vigorously at the supervisor in front of them.

"Not only that, there is also a bandit who claims to be from the Phantom Organization who has targeted us and intends to rob our cultural relics on the road. Although I don't know why they haven't taken any action yet, it's very risky to continue staying here. In addition, some of our rune items will expire in the near future..."

"..."

Do you have to deliver the explosives today?

Listening to the series of descriptions, the person in charge's expression became more and more subtle. If it weren't for the fact that these people who set out three months ago had no way of knowing about this gathering, the supervisor would definitely think that these people were attackers.

But even if it wasn't the attacker, it was probably not much different. Looking at the black magic book that was emitting invisible screams, the whole book turned black, and jumped around in people's hands, the person in charge of the Wind of Heaven could tell at a glance that if this thing really exploded, there would probably be few living people in Middenheim except for the cathedral.

Looking at the dirty and even emaciated members of the cultural relics escort team, the person in charge sighed with some pity.

"Okay, no need to talk, I'll take you in."

"Ah? Do we have to go in now? There are a group of important people discussing things in there..."

"That's why we're hiding it at this time. Do you want to let everyone know about the transportation of treasures? We are heavily guarded now, and there are no problems with the detection agencies. What are you waiting for if you don't take this opportunity to make those villains helpless? Can't you contact the guards to send us in now?"

"Well, that's it."

A few people looked at each other, and under the strange gazes of many guards, they pushed a large cart slowly into the deepest part of the entire building.

Under the eyes and power of the gods, the power of chaos cannot interfere here without a medium. And the medium cannot appear on such a historical prop. As the person in charge of the Wind of Heaven, he can clearly feel the thickness of the history above and the richness of the danger.

Rather than worrying about these things being chaos interference, it would be better to worry about them exploding one day.

Looking at the coffin-like object emerging from the shaking cart, the person in charge couldn't help but ask:
"Just send these things in? Are you sure you want to send so many things together and have them guarded under the eyes of the gods? These things don't seem to be that important."

"Yes, it's not important, but it's rare."

The members of the cultural relics team wiped the sweat from their heads and said seriously:
"It's a player's skeleton, and some unknown ingredients, the black ointment under the Lizardman Temple, the rune weapon that was about to be scrapped from the Norscans, the book in the hands of the vampire, and some bricks and tissues from the cursed city of Kislev."

"I see. They are indeed rare items..."

The person in charge looked at the things in the car and nodded.

Leaving aside other things, the ointment of the Lizardman Temple, the players' Google, and the organizations of the Cursed City are really not easy to deal with under the current circumstances.

Especially for players, this unique species with very distinct characteristics is almost impossible to hunt, and can only be hunted by torturing them, which can easily cause the bones to wear and break.

If you want to truly understand the state of this creature that is no different from humans but has a completely different physical quality, you can only torture the player to a mental breakdown while he is still alive, and then you can get a complete skeleton of the player. In this way, even the tissues in the Cursed City are not so rare.

"The Mage Academy will come here tomorrow for the second transfer. Actually, we originally planned to try to seal it ourselves, but our ability was not enough, so we had to transfer it here..."

As everyone talked, they pushed the cart and soon arrived at the bottom of the temple.

While everyone was talking politely, no one noticed that in the cloth-covered coffin, the skeleton covered with countless gelatinous substances suddenly began to bleed.

The player's extraordinary flesh and blood resuscitation ability began to take shape, and countless flesh and blood began to support the bones and internal organs. The flesh and blood brain, vocal cords, and a series of organs were gradually resurrected around. The tortured player stretched out his palm in the darkness and looked at the dark void with hatred.

"It is time for revenge, Imperial."

In the container, the skeleton that had grown flesh and blood grinned, pressed its bones and blood towards a brand engraved inside its skull, and poured all its hatred into the Eightfold Path.

The next moment, the curtain between reality and the virtual world was instantly broken, and the torrent of energy rushed in all directions along this small area in the blink of an eye, almost razing the entire defense area to the ground in an instant. There was no sound, no huge light, just the heat flow of the subspace swept through in an instant.

The church, which carried thousands of years of history, was blessed by the gods and had extremely strong defenses, was turned into a pile of waste that the Chaos Gods laughed at in front of everyone. Scarlet blood mist emerged from the cracks, dyeing the sky a strange red. The endless hatred and angry flames led the Avenger, the blood god, to come, and he laughed grimly and blew the temple into pieces.

The Electors of the Empire were instantly annihilated.

Countless alarms were sounded throughout the Empire. Countless Beastmen howled and poured into major cities like a tide, announcing the arrival of the Chaos Disaster.

I’m a bit stuck in writing, so I deleted what I wrote before. I’m really sorry!
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(End of this chapter)