Your war hammer is too fake

They were silent and motionless, marching in neat rows without the need for verbal commands, military music conductors, or even slogans, and then smoothly changing from marching formation to battle formation in silence.

The last batch of officers wearing various types of self-provided armor and riding armored horses came out of the tunnel and walked proudly among the soldiers. A sudden gust of wind swept across the square, and the helmets, pennants and flags fluttered wildly in the air, while the people under the armor were as motionless as sculptures.

"It's an excellent army," An Jiyue said, "Even by the standards of the elves, they can be considered elite."

"If that's the case," Horstmann said quickly, "then you should understand how difficult it is to go against me..."

"But they are not your army," the girl said casually, piercing through the Chaos Warlock's pretense. "Alright, stop talking nonsense. Aren't the spells you secretly cast ready? Hurry up. I'm in a hurry."

Blue dimensional flames appeared around the Chaos Warlock, transforming into burning arrows that streaked across the sky. The rain of arrows covered every possible direction for the girl to dodge, while Horstman drove his mount forward at an accelerated speed. The "elf witch" on the opposite side would either concentrate on breaking his spells, and then die under the fangs and claws of the demon dragon because she could not dodge; or she would dodge in time and be hit in the face by the dense flaming arrows.

Then, An Jiyue suddenly disappeared from Horstmann's sight.

The Chaos Warlock relied entirely on the rich experience gained from the daily backstabbing of Tzeentch followers, and without thinking, he leaned over and stuck to the dragon's back, barely avoiding the telekinetic blade that attacked from behind.

It is impossible to perform the skill of shrinking the earth into an inch when both feet are off the ground, and An Zhendan does not have any other spells with similar teleportation effects. An Jiyue actually used the Faceless Man's psychic power [Phase Shift]. The girl used psychic power to temporarily transform herself into a pure spiritual body. In her eyes, the whole world was covered with a layer of gray, and the speed of everything slowed down countless times. After one second of subjective time, she left this state, and her toes wrapped in soft-soled shoes gently stepped on the back of the Chaos Dragon.

The telekinesis quickly gathered and compressed into an infinitely thin and slender blade that slashed at the Chaos Warlock's neck. The latter dodged the attack with amazing intuition and skillful movements. When Horstman drew his sword and turned around, An Jiyue, who had missed the attack, immediately escaped.

After a brief thought, the girl changed her battle strategy. Enduring the slight tingling sensation in her brain caused by the continuous use of phase shift, An Jiyue disappeared from Horstman's sight again. Just as the Chaos Warlock looked around with his sword in doubt, concentrating on sensing even the slightest sign of danger, he heard his mount roaring in pain.

The telekinetic blade cut through the dragon scales and dragon skin on Baudros's abdomen. The Chaos Demon Dragon's huge body meant that even if it sensed danger, it could not dodge this merciless attack. Smelly blood and intestines flowed out of the open abdomen, and Baudros fell violently. It was still struggling to maintain flight, but every time it flapped its wings, it accelerated the deterioration of its injuries.

"Land!" the Chaos Warlock shouted at his mount. This injury looked scary, but it would not kill a powerful dragon in a short time. But if Baldros continued to fly in the sky, the next blow would be to chop off its head.

Horstman was a little annoyed. He didn't understand why he couldn't detect the abnormal flow of the wind of magic when his opponent cast a "spell", so he couldn't counter the opponent's spell at all. But... now is not the time to talk about this.

He stood up from the saddle, holding the staff in his left hand and the sword in his right hand, facing his opponent who was slowly falling from the sky.

"Round two." He said to the other party.

Chapter 153: Showdown (Part 2)

This should be An Jiyue's first fight with a real master.

Amon Chaka didn't count. This unfortunate oldest ever-changing demon king had been locked up for too long. The seal Namtaru had imposed was not just to lock him up, but also to continuously extract his power to maintain the seal. When he broke out of the seal, his former power was reduced to one tenth of what it once was... The key point was that before he met An Jiyue, he was beaten half-crippled by Namtaru, and the remaining mana was used to escape. In the end, he was crushed alive by telekinesis without even being able to put up any resistance.

Hopping off the saddle, Horstman stared intently at the masked female elf in front of him. When he was still an acolyte of the Academy of Light, he had read about the Asrai in books. It is said that the Asrai's philosophy of life is between the Asur and the Druzi. Their elite mages, known as "weavers", always appear in pairs, one of whom uses high magic and the other uses dark magic, and the two have achieved a balance of power where light and shadow coexist.

Since he defected from the Empire and stayed in the depths of the Arctic wasteland to conduct academic research, Egrim von Horstmann had never dealt with elven wizards. He only knew a few words about the high-level magic that required the precise coordination of the eight magic winds and the dark magic that directly used the original magic winds from books. He was not sure whether the female elf in front of him was the weaver mentioned in the book, and which magic system she used. He only knew one thing -

Today he must either win the generous reward Tzeentch promised him, or die.

The Chaos Warlock Lord uttered a short syllable, and the wind of magic danced because of his will. He did not try to use any complex and powerful spells, but used the most basic attack spells to contain his opponent. With his attainments in magic, this low-level spell can be cast instantly without any spells.

The blue witch fire flew towards An Jiyue, and then Horstman dodged a blazing white lightning, and did not stop chanting the spell while dodging. The difficult and obscure spell played out smooth syllables, and the Chaos Warlock dodged another lightning bolt in a slightly embarrassed manner, while throwing out a piece of Ogham stone fragment. With this ancient artifact that stored magic power as the core, on the square's tightly fitted flat ground, more than a dozen weathered stone bricks were lifted up and arched to the side, and the rolling wet soil gathered into a sturdy monster.

When the Fenbeast stood up, the Chaos Warlock breathed a sigh of relief. A palm thunder struck the chest of the Fenbeast, and a large part of the magic monster was cut off with a crackling explosion, and the charred soil flew everywhere. The next moment, the soil at the feet of the Fenbeast spontaneously gathered towards this soulless puppet driven entirely by magic, and the big hole on its chest recovered at an astonishing speed, as if it had never been injured at all.

Seeing that his latest research results, the improved swamp beast, were indeed effective, Horstman threw out the second piece of Ogham stone fragment. Seeing this, An Jiyue, who did not know any martial arts, no longer maintained a distance but immediately began to close the distance. The Chaos Warlock felt the abnormal flow of the magic wind, but before he tried to break the spell, the girl used the shrinking earth to an inch to come to a distance in front of him.

The powerful telekinesis captured the second fragment of the Ogham stone, and then continued to increase the force to try to crush it. The swamp beast that was summoned earlier roared and punched down, and its speed and agility were completely inconsistent with the girl's inherent understanding of swamp beasts. She used part of her telekinesis to form a shield above her head to block the swamp beast's fist. The swamp beast punched continuously at an extremely fast speed, and each blow could make the hastily formed transparent shield tremble.

The second piece of ogham stone shattered after a few seconds. The hardness of this thing also did not match the girl's understanding of ogham stone. She suspected that this thing might have been strengthened by Horstman, or had some special origin. After succeeding, she immediately pulled back and used telekinesis to throw the swamp beast that was still swinging its fists out. This mixture of wet soil and rubble bricks drew a parabola and broke into pieces with a snap. This made it quiet for a while, although only for a short while.

After just a moment, the body of this improved swamp beast began to reassemble itself.

Horstman had no time to feel sorry for his loss. Although he had an absolute advantage in physique and martial arts, the invisible slash that almost turned him into a senior still frightened the Chaos Warlock. There was no sign when that thing was activated, and the flow of magic wind would not be abnormal. At the same time, it was too sharp. Horstman believed that his enchanted heavy armor was definitely not as strong as Baldros's dragon scales, so... he decided to use magic to determine the winner.

When An Jiyue crushed the second piece of Ogham stone with telekinesis and threw the swamp beast out, Horstman also completed his spell. A blue fire ring spread out from the Chaos Warlock as the center, and sharp blue crystals quickly grew on the ground of the square where it passed. Everyone with magical senses at the scene could feel that the flow of the surrounding magic wind had become significantly stronger.

“To hell with those shady tricks!” The Chaos Lord’s eyes and mouth blazed with supernatural blue flames, which flowed from every crack in his helmet. It looked like Horstman’s head was on fire. “This is how a mage fights! Come, elf, show me the power of the Son of Asuryan!”

"As you wish, servant of the God of Darkness." An Jiyue replied coldly.

The trial phase of small fights ended, and the two sides began a real confrontation. The Chaos Warlock waved his staff, and the dimensional flames unique to Tzeentch magic covered most of the square. The Palatis army, which had been motionless since a while ago, had to retreat dozens of meters to avoid the witchcraft fire; on the other side, more and more imperials appeared on the ruined southern wall of the palace, and officers at all levels were roaring and giving orders, asking their soldiers to immediately clean up the scene and deploy defenses.

No one disturbed the duel between the two top wizards, mainly because they couldn't do it. After Carl arrived on the wall, he observed for a while, his snow-white wolf ears twitching from time to time, while Boris next to him stared at him jealously.

"Can we help Lady Deedlit?" he asked the imperial mages who came with him.

The battle wizards all shook their heads, including the dean of the Academy of Light, Welspasian Kant. Kant had recognized the Chaos Warlock, and the memory of the tragic battle that year came back to him. "My prince," Kant saluted Karl, Boris, Walkerma, and Emil in turn, "This is not a battle we can intervene in. The Wind of Haixi is the nemesis of all evil forces, but it is not easy to mobilize. Before my people finish preparing to cast the spell, this spell duel will be decided."

Karl Franz immediately asked: "Who will win?"

"A spell duel is different from a sword fight, my prince. Magic is a force full of unexpected things," Kant replied. "I can only tell you that Ms. Deedlit is the most powerful wizard I have ever seen, bar none."

As soon as he finished speaking, Kurt roared, "Get down!" and quickly pounced on Carl.

Everyone on the city wall fell to the ground. The next moment, a violent gust of air whistled over their heads, and a Teutonic guard who was a little slow to react was blown away and fell heavily into a garden behind the city wall.

The air flow subsided a little, and dusty heads emerged from behind the city wall, looking around at the square. At this time, the square shared by the Altdorf Palace and the Sigma Temple had been divided into two, one half was occupied by blue dimensional flames, and the other half was filled with blazing white thunder.

The two forces wrestled with each other without giving in. The heavy bricks were either plowed apart by the flash of lightning or charred and cracked by the burning of the witchcraft fire. The figures of the two wizards were looming in the storm created by magic. The swamp beast with amazing regeneration ability was struggling to drag the chaos dragon Baldros away. The body made of earth and stone was disintegrating and regenerating in the confrontation between the two energies, leaving countless charred fine sand and dust along the way.

"We have to help that elven lady!" Carl announced loudly, "This is Altdorf, the seat of Sigmar! Have the imperial people fallen so low that they have to rely on aliens to defend their own cities?!"

"Anyone can talk big meow!" Boris's face was distorted for various reasons, especially when he heard the pronunciation of the word "meow" coming out of his mouth: "Boy, there is a difference between recklessness and bravery meow!"

"That's a very unconvincing thing coming from you, Boris."

"What did you say, meow?!"

The author says:

Author's note: The picture shows the swamp beast, with a strange walk. Damn, I actually delayed the update because of looking for pictures, how can I go about this...

Chapter 154: Exit (Part 1)

William feels terrible now.

He had not received any systematic military education, and was not very good at swordsmanship, which was a compulsory course for male nobles. In his own words, "I am a scientist, not a warrior." However, even so, he could see from his extremely limited military experience that the cult was making a terrible mistake.

"General Carter, why don't we attack yet?" William asked Carter, the commander of the cult army on the scene and the former imperial general. "Even if the south cannot be used as an attack route now, can't we go around to other directions? We are already in the war, and what are we doing now? We are doing nothing!"

General Carter, who was not tall and looked more like a scholar than an officer, rode on an armored warhorse, with an officer holding the white battle flag of the Order standing behind him. Hearing William's question, the gray-haired commander turned around, with an ambiguous expression on his no longer young face: "This is the order of the archbishop."

Archbishop, the title of Oberstein, the founder and supreme leader of the order.

"The Order's troops are seriously insufficient. A quick surprise attack before the enemy can react is our only chance of victory," William tried his best to control his voice and tone. "The enemy has already begun to mobilize, but we are standing here like fools. Do we have to wait until the Reik Guards surround us and the Imperial Navy's shells fall on our heads before my father understands that we must hurry up now?"

"Only the square south of the palace is convenient for deploying our formation. We..."

"Do you believe what you are saying to me now, General Carter?"

General Carter was silent.

"I guess my dear father must have given you a secret order. If I have any intention of seizing the command of the army, kill me... No, that's not right. I am still useful to him. You should arrest me." When William mentioned his father, he calmed down completely. "If you are still loyal to the ideals of the Order and the great ideal of letting mankind embrace a new life, General Carter, please tell me, do you really think you are doing the right thing now?"

General Carter's brows were almost twisted into a knot. "Yegor," he said to the officer holding the military flag behind him after hesitating for a long time, "Go and ask the archbishop for instructions. You go in person. You don't have to worry about me."

"Brother Carter!" William suddenly raised his voice. "You know this is meaningless. He will never change his decision. No matter in what he is good at or what he is not good at, he firmly believes that he is always right. Do you remember what the battle plan of the Order is? As a result, when we are really standing here, only one step away from the power center of the empire, he lets us just stand at the door and watch, doing nothing!"

"Brother William, I am sure that the Archbishop has his own plan, and he obviously thinks that I don't need to know the whole plan." Carter tugged at his collar. Perhaps because his breastplate was tied too tightly, he felt a little stuffy in his chest. "Perhaps you want to find out some information from me. Unfortunately, I don't know more. I only know that the Archbishop modified the order temporarily."

"Temporarily?" William asked, "Did he change the order when we set out today?"

"I heard... I mean, I can't confirm the authenticity of this news." Carter felt his chest seemed to be more stuffy, which made him vaguely breathless. "Just a few months ago, even before you went to the badlands, your father hired a new consultant, a light wizard who always had a pure white crow by his side."

After saying this, the general suddenly felt dizzy: "Yegor, my medicine... um..."

William rushed forward, but was still a step too late. General Carter staggered on his horse and then fell headfirst. Captain Yegor, General Carter's most loyal subordinate and best friend, tried to give first aid, but the captain only put his hand on Carter's neck for a moment before giving up this futile effort.

"He's dead," Yegor's voice was flat, as if the dead person was just a stranger. "This is murder."

"This is definitely not done by my dear father," William shook his head. "If Carter dies, the command of the religious army will fall into my hands. Our respected archbishop would not want to see this situation."

There are a group of former imperial officers in the Paradis Order, and it is they who support the command system of the Order's army. Carter is the highest-ranking and most prestigious among them. If he dies, the remaining former imperial captains from various provinces of the empire will not have enough prestige to command everyone.

But William could. It was William who used his knowledge to create the enhanced man and this army, not to mention that he was the only heir to the Archbishop of the Order, Oberstein. Although the bad relationship between the father and son was well known within the Order, it was not a problem for the people of the Empire. Nobles! Only a few had harmonious family relationships, and there were many who drew their swords against each other.

"What should we do now?" Yegor asked, "Should the mission continue?"

"We will find out who murdered General Carter, Captain," William motioned the two Nietos following behind him to take Carter's body away, "but now... let's do what we should have done a long time ago."

At this time, the other officers of the Order had also noticed the unusual situation and gathered around. At least on the surface, they had no objection to William taking over the command. The only thing that made them a little dissatisfied was that William didn't care much about their opinions and views. He only consulted Yegor and completely ignored others.

"It is no longer possible to attack the south of the palace as originally planned," Yegor said. "Our 'ally' did not destroy the defenses south of the palace as planned. Not only that, he should have dealt with the Rick Navy after doing that, but it is meaningless to say this now. My suggestion is that we use the ogres as the vanguard and go first..."

"Look!" someone shouted, "The spell duel is over. ... Damn it, that elf witch won!"

Everyone looked in the direction of the sound. The supernatural energy that had almost filled the entire square just now disappeared. Only the unrecognizable square could prove that they had existed. After each of them had fought with all their strength, the confrontation between "Deedlit" and Horstmann was deadlocked for a while, until Nishikori Shigeru suddenly appeared.

As soon as the battle started, the deputy commander disappeared into the void. Until the most critical moment of the magic duel, the 17-year-old Jinyiwei school marquis appeared out of thin air on Horstmann's left, ready to attack.

The Chaos Warlock Lord was distracted for a moment. When he had to divert some of his attention and summon a ball of dark energy to throw at Jin Zhifan, the deputy commander dodged it lightly and went back into stealth mode. An Jiyue seized this fleeting flaw and tried his best to release more blazing white thunder.

The balance was broken, and the backlash of the spell being broken caused Horstman to spit out blood mixed with organ fragments, and he fell backwards with his arms spread out. The witch fire and thunder all disappeared, and the entire square was shattered under the ravages of magic.

When the elven witch looked towards Paradis, William felt his heart almost stopped beating. Fortunately, the masked woman Asrai immediately looked away. William saw her walk towards Horstman, say something, and then throw out a ball of fire, turning the fallen Chaos Warlock Lord into ashes.

The moment Horstman died, the swamp beast he summoned collapsed, and the Chaos Dragon Baldros roared angrily and rushed over. It rushed in front of the indifferent female elf, and its two heads opened their bloody mouths full of fangs at the same time. The next moment, an invisible slash cut through the air, and the two heads of the dragon fell off at the same time.

"Telekinetic blade..." William murmured in a tone that sounded almost like a dream. He finally recognized the power used by the female elf. The psychic spells mastered by the cult were not complete. To be precise, the cult was only good at interfering with and manipulating the mind. They only knew the names of various offensive psychic powers that extended from telekinesis.

"We must follow the original plan and attack from the south," William said to Yegor firmly, "Perhaps in addition to the God Mind Engine, the Order can also gain other benefits..."

Without waiting for Yegor to answer, the elf witch turned around suddenly and disappeared from the spot without any warning.

"Organize an attack, Captain," William also saw this scene, "for Paradis!"

Chapter 155: Exit (Part 2)

The old consultant held the Book of Destiny in his arms and looked out anxiously from time to time.

Since being chosen by the awakened fate ceremony, the old consultant has abandoned his past. He no longer has a name, and no one will ask him his last name. The pure white crow is his only companion. This mysterious animal always whispers in his ear, guiding him to complete the mission given by the Lord of Change.

With the help of the Fate Codex, he managed to get in touch with the famous Egrim van Horstman in their line of work, and became the other party's undercover agent in the School of Light. The arrogant Horstman thought that the old consultant was a follower who came here because of his reputation, a new chess piece that could be used, but the truth was just the opposite: Horstman was the one being used. The Chaos Warlock Lord trusted his own tricks and cunning too much that he did not realize the specialness of the old consultant -

As the current holder of the Tome of Destiny, the old consultant is enough to fool most of the wise men in the world with just this huge magic book. When the old consultant was accepted by Horstmann and became a member of his huge underground network throughout the Old World, the old consultant also worked for Oberstein, making various suggestions to the master of the Paradis Cult as a consultant, subtly influencing the decisions of this underground sect that worships the Faceless Man.

Neither Horstmann nor Oberstein realized that this old man, who seemed to know many secrets, was providing consulting services to others while working for them. The consultant had been carefully concealing his existence, and he knew one thing very well, that his own power was not worth mentioning in the grand game he was involved in.

He was able to do all this because he held the Book of Destiny, and that was all.

This self-possessed magic book is one of Tzeentch's favorite items, and it is said to contain infinite knowledge. However, like all items from Tzeentch, the Book of Fate is cursed. Its holder can only use its knowledge to serve others, but cannot directly profit from it. This is why advisors are advisors.

That being said, there are some questions that even the Fate Canon cannot answer, such as who is that masked female elf.

As a professionally trained luminous mage, it was not difficult for him to sneak into the luminous academy. The consultant knew something would happen in the palace today. He knew that a demon with a special identity had sneaked into the empire's ticket holders, and he personally brought Di Enqing, his colleague, into the luminous academy... However, what happened next was completely beyond the consultant's cognition. Not only did the situation not develop as planned by the Lord of Change, but an Asrai witch with great magical powers also showed up halfway.

The consultant did not appear in the palace. Before the plan began, he found an excuse to go out and hid in a specially prepared secret house, quietly watching the development of events.

Everything was going smoothly. The consultant had a crystal ball that Horstman had rewarded him with. The cautious consultant did not use it to spy on the palace directly. He knew that some sharp mages could detect such spying, so he linked the magic vision of the crystal ball with the eyes of one of his apprentice mages and watched the palace through the apprentice's eyes. In this way, even if someone sensed the spying, they would only think that the apprentice was just peeking.

The assassination plan against Carl was ended before it even began, and the consultant didn't think anything of it; but when he subconsciously wanted to find out the true identity of the elf witch through the Book of Destiny, which was said to be omniscient, the pages were blank.

The consultant was a little panicked. "Deedlit of Rhodes Island"? He had never heard of the place name Rhodes Island, let alone that the Asrai had a powerful witch named Deedlit. The results of searching for these two names using the Fate Book were still blank. The subsequent magic duel between "Deedlit" and Horstman made the consultant tremble with fear. He could easily die from an unknown AOE if he was not careful, let alone participate in this level of confrontation, even if he just got too close.

Of course, what was more disconcerting to the consultant than the fact that (one of) his employers was in a tough battle was that Carter knew that Oberstein had secretly hired a new consultant.

Although the Paradis Cult is a cult, they are different from ordinary cults. The Cult is even more disgusted with magic than the dwarves. One of their ultimate ideals is to completely eliminate magic and replace it with the psychic power from the Faceless Men. Because of this concept, the Cult has no spellcasters except William, and the members of the Cult, regardless of their status, never use any magic items. As for William, in fact, only a few people in the Cult know that he is a Chaos Warlock.

In any case, Oberstein's hiring of wizards as consultants was a shady act, even though it was he who proposed the highest ideal of the cult, "eradicating magic." In order to keep it secret, Oberstein did not tell anyone about it, and the consultant went a step further and suggested that the relevant information of this matter be cursed.

Oberstein agreed. As long as someone reveals relevant information on any occasion, the Fate Book will be alerted. These marked information are also the medium for casting spells. The consultant can use it to curse the leaker. The more the leaker says, the stronger the curse will be. If the leaker reveals certain key information, the consultant can directly curse the other person to death.

Originally, Oberstein and the consultant were just being cautious, but the consultant didn't expect that one of his employers' little secrets would actually be exposed. The consultant had no idea how General Carter knew all this, and it was obvious that Oberstein's ability to keep secrets was not as reliable as he thought... Anyway, the consultant took action.

After dealing with the talkative General Carter, the consultant continued to focus on the current situation. No matter what the Lord of Change originally planned, even if the Weaver of Fate came in person, it would be impossible to change the situation.

The pure white crow jumped onto the advisor's shoulder and whispered something in his ear. The advisor listened very carefully. He placed the Book of Destiny on the table and stepped back a few steps to make enough space.

The pure white crow jumped to the ground, and its body began to expand rapidly. In just a few seconds, it turned into a two-story-high behemoth. Stretching his body, one of Tzeentch's ever-changing demon lords, "Eternal Watcher" Sasoril, tilted his head and looked at the advisor beside him: "Thank you for your incompetence. The master has decided that I will take over the next task. For this reason, He ended my punishment ahead of schedule and restored all my strength."

"What?" The consultant looked a little bewildered. "No, this is not my fault! No one could have expected such a powerful elven witch to appear and disrupt the situation, and even the Ceremony of Destiny did not know her origins! Lord of Change, please..."

Sasoril raised his staff, which was big enough for a human to use as a roof beam, and pointed the tip of the staff at the advisor. The advisor's defense came to an abrupt end, and his body instantly turned into a handful of ashes. His soul was dragged and forced into the fate ceremony amid silent and shrill wails.

"As a sacrifice, it's just so-so," the Lord of Change whispered, "but it's better than nothing."

The great demon of Tzeentch held the staff and began to chant a long spell. The Book of Destiny was spread out from the middle and quickly turned to a certain page. Lines of dense text appeared on the originally blank pages, which were knowledge long forgotten by mortals. The great demon gently touched the crystal ball left by the consultant with his right hand, and the picture on it changed chaotically, and finally fixed on Karl Franz's resolute face with snow-white wolf ears.

"My Lord has made his judgment!" The Lord of Change laughed loudly: "Come on, let more changes come!"

After saying that, the great demon released his spell with the help of the Book of Destiny.

……

"You win, elf," Horstman said while coughing up blood while lying on the ground. "Since I'm about to die, can you answer me a question?"