Your war hammer is too fake

The two sides looked at each other for a moment. For some reason, looking at these people, Sir Almarik had a vague absurd and crazy idea in his mind.

"Brother Almarik," a Holy Grail Knight said to the Undead Slayer, "Why do I always feel that..."

The knight shook his head, and the Holy Grail Knight immediately shut up and said nothing more.

The Holy Grail Knights began to charge, and the "Imperial Knights" on the opposite side did the same. When the two sides were about to collide, the "Imperial Knights" separated to the sides and let Sir Almarik go.

The knight did not look back, because he had already seen his target. The space behind the city gate had been cleared in advance, and Ewen de Richelieu stood there alone, carrying a dwarven-style warhammer on her shoulder.

"Lady Egwene!" Sir Almalik said loudly in Breton. "You have already embarked on the wrong path. It is not too late to turn back now. You should have become the second Huameisi, purifying all the filth in the world in the name of the lady. Right here, right now, kneel down and confess to the lady, so that the lady can save your soul."

"Repent?" Evelyn looked at the Holy Grail Knight with a strange look: "Almarik de Gaudaron, you don't understand anything. You don't even know what you believe in."

"Shut up!" the knight shouted. "It seems you are unwilling to repent. Let's talk in another way."

"That's exactly what I want," the knight said, holding the hammer of Black Rock Castle with both hands. "In fact, it should be so."

……

Note 1: Banner-of-Defence, a magical banner exclusive to Bretonnia, can increase the defense of the Knights within the range against ranged attacks, and the effect is so strong that it can even block cannonballs. Of course, this thing, like many magical items unique to Bretonnia, only works on objects with the blessing of the Lake God. If the target object does not have or loses the blessing of the Lake God, the special effect of this magic banner will immediately disappear.

Note 2: In various materials about Kislev, GW particularly likes to repeatedly emphasize that Kislev is poor, very poor, and the Ugol people are even poorer than the Gospadans.

Chapter 208 Holy Grail Duel

The Knight of the Holy Grail, the living saint of the Goddess of the Lake, and the combat ceiling of the human camp in the Old World.

Except for the founding king of Bretonnia, Gilles the Unifier, and his companions, all those who want to become Holy Grail Knights must first become an Exploration Knight. They need to swear to give up all worldly titles and wealth, entrust their territory to others, and then embark on a difficult and dangerous journey to find the Holy Grail.

Some people never found the Holy Grail until they were old and gray, and finally died alone in a corner far away from their hometown. Some people met the legendary Green Knight before they even had time to leave Bretonnia. The last part of the Holy Grail Trial is to duel with the Green Knight. Only those who win the recognition of the Green Knight are qualified to become the Holy Grail Knight.

There are many benefits to becoming a Holy Grail Knight. When a Bretonnian Knight drinks the liquid from the Holy Grail, not only will their physical functions be enhanced in all aspects, but they will also live much longer than ordinary people. Their body and mind become extraordinary and they will never feel tired again. They have the blessing of the permanent lake god and are more powerful than ordinary knights. Their weapons are always filled with holy magic, even if they are holding a branch picked by the roadside.

If they are the Holy Grail Knights who are particularly favored by the Lady of the Lake, they can obtain more blessings, such as Sir Almarik's aura against the undead and Lawn Leocornwall's rapid regeneration ability.

Above are the Grail Knights of Bretonnia.

When she drew the rare card, Aiwen chose to use it without hesitation and recruited a team of Imperial Holy Grail Knights. Compared with other system units, the Imperial Holy Grail has a rather unique additional recruitment condition: for each Holy Grail Knight recruited, Aiwen needs to pay a drop of her own blood. This does not mean that the Knight Princess has to get a knife to bleed herself every time she recruits the Holy Grail. As long as she agrees, the War Codex will automatically extract the required blood from her body remotely.

The mysterious liquid in the Holy Grail is actually the diluted blood of Lilith. It can make those mortals who are qualified to receive this powerful blessing undergo a complete transformation after drinking it. Egwene's blood also has this effect, and the effect is far more powerful than Lilith's blood.

Both An Jiyue and Aiwen had wondered why a team of Imperial Holy Grail Knights only had 12 people. You know, even a team of Dragon Princes (mounted horse version) has 80 people, and a team of top infantry like Swords and Swords, which is full of transcendents, can have people.

Once Knight Princess recruited the Imperial version of the Holy Grail, all doubts disappeared.

"(Rick Spell) For the lady!"

"(Breton) For the lady!"

The same content was shouted out in different languages. The 12 Imperial Holy Grails and the 18 Baator Holy Grails collided fiercely, making a dull sound like iron blocks hitting each other. In the noisy background, the crisp sound of wood cracking became one, and five Baator Holy Grails fell off their horses with half of their lances piercing their chests. Then, the Imperial Holy Grails threw away the remaining half of the lance, and the 12 sabers were unsheathed with a "clang", and the sharp blades burst into sparks in the air.

The lances of the Baator Holy Grail had been used up long ago, which gave the Imperial Holy Grail a big advantage at the beginning of the battle; however, even if the Imperial Holy Grail did not have lances, it would still be the winner of this knight duel. The lances only reduced their losses, but did not determine the outcome of the battle.

When the swords met, the Bretonnians almost thought they were competing with a troll. More than half of the swords of the Holy Grail of Breton were knocked out of their hands, and several of them had cracked knuckles. If the hilts were not tied to their wrists with chains, they would definitely lose their weapons and be slaughtered by the enemy.

The Baator Holy Grails hurriedly swung their arms to get the swords back into their fingers, and narrowly blocked another slash from the Imperial Holy Grail with their swords.

Troll-like strength, superior speed, and comparable martial arts, this was the first impression of the Baator Holy Grail on the Imperial Holy Grail. Relying on their battle experience, the Baator Holy Grails struggled to resist the Imperial Holy Grail's continuous and swift attacks. When they realized what kind of opponent they were facing, several Baator Holy Grails suddenly gave up their defense. They let the opponent's swords chop at them, and at the same time stabbed their swords desperately.

The blessing on the Imperial Holy Grail was pierced by the sword, followed by the full body plate armor made by the dwarf blacksmith (Note 1), and finally the skin and muscles. The Holy Grail of Baator, who made a fatal blow, let go of his hand and slowly fell from the horse with horrifying wounds on his body, and their swords were like branches on a tree and stuck in their enemies.

In the corner of the eyes of the other Baator Holy Grails, the injured Imperial Holy Grail hung the shield back on the saddle, then used his free left hand to grasp the sword stuck in his chest, pulled it out forcefully and threw it to the ground.

The clang of the sword falling to the ground announced the complete defeat of the Holy Grail of Bretonnia. Under the incredulous gaze of the Bretonnians, the injured Imperial Holy Grails gathered around as if nothing had happened, and together with the other Imperial Holy Grails, they besieged the remaining Holy Grails of Bretonnia. One after another, the long-renowned knights met their end here, causing the Knight of Paraon, who witnessed all this, to fall into the abyss of despair bit by bit.

The Imperial Grail was not unscathed in this battle, as a Baator Grail split the helmet of an Imperial Grail before dying, and the blade got stuck in the skull and could not be pulled out. The Imperial Grail fell backwards and never got up again.

The Holy Grail of Battor finally discovered the weakness of these strange "Imperial Knights", but it was too late. Duke Paraon, covered in blood, watched helplessly as the last Holy Grail Knight of his side fell in the siege. He tried to rush over to support the enemy, but his mount was knocked over by several spears first, and the Duke himself fell to the ground.

"Don't the Imperials know what honor is?!" The Duke, one leg pinned down by his dead horse, yelled in Rexpert: "Is this how you fight? Is this what you want?"

The Duke did not expect an answer, but he heard a cold female voice saying to him: "You are alive because I will not allow you to die. Surrender your people, Bretonnians, or they will all die."

"Don't even think about it!" The Duke flatly refused.

"I guess you're counting on Sir Almarik to perform a miracle," the voice continued, "but what if Egwene loses? She's not in command of the Imperial army here. Even though they're all loyal to her."

The imperial infantrymen who had been besieging the Knights of Paraon took the initiative to retreat and break away from the contact when the conversation began. The Paraon people did not chase after them. While they were alert to the imperial soldiers on the opposite side, they gathered around the Duke and worked together to move the body of the warhorse away. A paladin wanted to help the Duke up, but was thrown away by the latter.

The master of the Principality of Paraon stood up straight, and only then did he see clearly the appearance of the person he was talking to.

"Bring the people here." An Jiyue said to the soldiers behind him.

The human wall of spearmen and musketeers opened a gap, and two Imperial Army soldiers came over carrying the unconscious Sir Almalik. The two former good citizens of Paraon held their heads high, and even when faced with the Duke's angry glare, they did not look away, but stared back without giving in.

"Damn it," the Duke didn't have time to care about the offense of these two guys for the time being, "Madam, what did you do to him?!"

"It would be better to ask the knight directly after he wakes up," An Jiyue crossed her arms, her bright red eyes reflecting a group of exhausted enemies in tattered armor. "I won't persuade you for the third time. Do you want to surrender?"

"...you sacked my city, and now no one can pay my ransom."

"It's alright," the governor waved his hand nonchalantly, "Your Majesty the King will pay. He can either pay or reduce Bretonnia to one less duchy. I believe he will make the right choice."

……

Note 1: The Empire's full body armor is basically made by dwarves. Only a very small number of the best human blacksmiths have the ability to forge this high-end armor.

The author says:

Author's words: PS: Baator Holy Grail was mainly killed on first sight. Under normal circumstances, it would not have lost so badly.

Regarding the Imperial version of the Holy Grail Knights, there is actually an abandoned setting: this group of people can use the blood of any Holy Book Lord, including those who are not human or even have no blood at all (there is a Tomb King in the group who has not yet appeared), not just Egwene.

The Imperial Holy Grail will believe in the blood of the one who was used during recruitment. In addition, the Imperial Holy Grail created by the blood of different Holy Scripture Masters will have different abilities. Take Ewen as an example. Her Holy Grail has the strongest physical fitness and rapid regeneration ability. The only weak spot in the body is the brain. Even if the heart is stabbed, the mobility will only be reduced. An Jiyue's Holy Grail is the weakest in terms of physical fitness, which is similar to the original Holy Grail, but it can use psychic power. The others also have their own characteristics.

But this setting was finally abandoned... (rubbing face

Chapter 209 Dream

Sir Almarik had a dream.

In the dream, he and a group of Holy Grail Knights from different regions received an oracle from the Lady of the Lake at the same time: to help the Paraon people punish the new emperor of the empire for his offense against Bretonnia.

At first, everything went smoothly. They defeated the troops deployed by the Ricks on the border and captured the emperor's most trusted general, Rick Marshal Kurt Helberg. Just as they were marching towards Altdorf, preparing to reproduce the glory of the Fourth Paraon War (Note 1), a piece of news like a bolt from the blue hit the Paraon people - Paraon was captured by a Rick army that came out of nowhere, and their retreat was cut off.

The Parraon people whose homes were stolen had no choice but to turn around and rush back in a hurry. On the way back, the Bretonnians learned more about the battle and the imperial army. It was said that the commander of the imperial army was a female general named Egwene, and this immediately gave the knight a bad premonition.

The premonition of the Holy Grail Knight soon came true. The commander of the imperial army was indeed Egwene de Richelieu. Egwene was an opponent so powerful that he didn't know how to deal with her. As a knight, Sir Almarik was not afraid of failure or death, but he could not accept the situation where a principality was completely defeated by the imperial people.

At this moment, a miracle happened. Just like the scene when he became a Holy Grail Knight, the lady appeared in front of him again and gave him a sword with many legendary stories. The lady told him that there was an unimaginable evil force entrenched in the city of Paraon. If the knights of Bretonnia could not win this battle, not only would the Principality of Paraon fall into darkness, but the entire Knight Kingdom and even the entire Old World would be doomed.

Sir Almarik took this task seriously, but he was not without doubts in his heart. On the day before the battle, he went into the city to meet Lady Egwene in order to persuade her to stop. The meeting itself was fruitless, but at least Sir Almarik saw Egwene in person.

During that meeting, the Holy Grail Knight clearly felt the other party's sacred nature. That holy and flawless aura could not belong to the enemy of mankind. Did the lady make a mistake? As soon as this outrageous thought came to his mind, the knight firmly suppressed it. He tried his best not to think about this question. He completely emptied his mind and focused only on the task given by the lady.

A certain thought, perhaps an impulse, roamed, whispered, and bewitched in the mind of the Holy Grail Knight. It magnified the doubts in the knight's heart, and no matter how much he prayed and introspected, he could no longer ignore the vague uneasiness in his heart. Almarik knew clearly that he was hovering on the edge of the abyss. Something that was strictly kept secret from the old farmer was not a secret to a knight, especially a Holy Grail Knight.

Sir Almarik could only carry the Lake God's Champion Sword with him at all times. When his soul felt the Lake God's divine power contained in the sword, his mind was at peace, but he knew it was only temporary. The Holy Grail Knight had already decided that after the battle, he would immediately go on a pilgrimage to re-consolidate his faith.

clang! !

The sword blade and the hammer head collided with each other, and a violent wave of air erupted from the point of impact, pressing the robes of the two men tightly against their armor. In the eyes of the onlookers, the two men fighting were so fast that only a few afterimages could be seen, and every collision of the two weapons would bring about a whistling wind and a large amount of smoke and dust.

With the sword in his hand as a medium, a steady stream of divine power poured into Almarik's body, greatly strengthening his strength that was already far superior to that of ordinary people. This was both a supreme blessing and an extreme torture, because the divine power that exceeded his endurance limit was destroying his body while quickly repairing the injuries.

At first, the two were able to maintain a roughly even state. However, as the duel progressed, the speed of repair gradually began to fall behind the speed of destruction. Even after being strengthened to this extent, Almarik was only on par with Egwene. He could feel that Egwene seemed a little hesitant at first, and her movements of swinging the war hammer were a little stiff, so that she was suppressed by him in the battle for a time; but the knight quickly adapted to this intensity of combat, and her moves became more and more fierce, making it increasingly difficult for Almarik to cope with it.

What's worse is that even though he was strengthened to the limit by the Lady's divine power, he still couldn't compete with Egwene in pure brute force. Then, more divine power poured into Almarik's body, forcibly maintaining the situation from collapsing immediately. The two sides fought for a while, and even with the Holy Grail Knight's iron will, Almarik couldn't help but roar to suppress the pain of his body that seemed to be dissolving, and swung his sword hard to force back Egwene, who seemed to be at ease.

Under the gaze of Knight Princess, the Holy Grail Knight spat out a mouthful of blood mixed with a few pieces of organ fragments.

The knight knew that he was reaching his limit. The pain in his body was worse than the most terrible torture in the world. However, compared with the physical pain, what really made Almarik unbearable was his inner turmoil. As a Holy Grail Knight, he could not feel the slightest evil power from Egwene. The knight forced himself not to think about the blasphemous thought of "Could it be that the lady was wrong?" He told himself over and over again that divinity was perfect and the gods could not make mistakes. It must be that he did not find the flaw in Egwene.

As a warrior who had experienced countless battles, he trusted his own judgment; as a devout believer, he could not and should not question God. The two contradictory positions collided violently, like a pack of wolves biting at Almarik's shaky sanity.

"Why?" He wanted to get an answer, so he asked directly: "What are you?!"

Egwene tilted her head. "I am the true Lady of the Lake," she said. "You are supposed to serve me."

"Shut up, you evil demon!" Almarik roared and rushed over with his sword in hand. "Your lies are ridiculous!"

The Knight laughed. She turned sideways, letting the Holy Grail Knight stumble and fall. "You have seen those people," she said with a smile, "you know what they are, right? But you deceive yourself and pretend that you know nothing."

Egwene's words reminded Almarik of the "Imperial Knights" he had seen before. They stopped their fellow Holy Grail warriors and only let him go. He and Egwene had been fighting for a while, but he didn't see even a single Holy Grail Knight rushing over. Even if those "Imperial Knights" were all Grand Masters, this would not happen.

"No..." Almarik leaned on his sword and struggled to get up from the ground. The divine power was still pouring into his body regardless, and he didn't know whether the lady wanted to help him or kill him. "No." He repeated it again, and ninety-nine sharp and piercing laughs echoed in his muddled mind.

Evelyn frowned. Almarik suddenly twitched violently, and the Lake God Champion Sword in his hand burst into a dazzling golden light that flickered. The next moment, the sword fell from the Holy Grail Knight's hand, and the light on the blade went out.

"Thank you, another Outer God," Almarik's mouth opened and closed mechanically, "you have given me a precious soul."

The body of the Holy Grail Knight rapidly expanded into a blue mass of deformed limbs, or in scientific terms, it mutated into a Tzeentch Chaos Spawn. There are no completely identical Chaos Spawns in the world, and each Chaos Spawn has its own "unique" features. The most special thing about the Chaos Spawn in front of him is that it still retains a human face on its torso, a face that is exactly the same as Sir Almarik's, and it is always crying.

"I'm sorry, my Lord," the face sobbed, "I should have known... I should have understood..."

The knight clenched the rune hammer in her hand, and her knuckles turned white due to excessive force. This was undoubtedly a provocation from Tzeentch. As a pure-blooded warrior, she had no way to save Sir Almarik's soul.

Fortunately, she was not the only one present today.

"Mr. Chi Anchi, opening champagne at halftime is not a good habit," An Jiyue appeared behind the Chaos Egg without knowing when, her eyes had completely turned silver, "Next time you cause trouble, remember to check if there is any trace of me around."

The vast spiritual energy was released without reservation, cutting off the connection between the Chaos God and the Chaos Egg. Tzeentch only had time to use the other mouth of the Chaos Egg to shout "Change! Another unexpected change!" before being disconnected.

"I guess you don't have many points left in your account," An Jiyue said as she summoned the Holy Book of War and transferred 50,000 points to Aiwen. "If it's not enough, ask me for more."

"Thank you. I'll treat you to a seafood feast later." Aiwen waved her hand and walked to the Chaos Egg standing there in a daze. Then she summoned her own War Codex and said, "Let me see... It costs more than 30,000 points? That's a bit expensive."

As she spoke, Knight Ji clicked "OK" with her mind.

……

Note 1: In the Fourth Paraon War (2402-2405), the Imperials suffered a series of defeats on the battlefield and finally had to pay a large ransom to let the Paraon people leave.

The author says:

Author's Note: PS: The Holy Grail is like the Green Knight, both of which appear out of thin air somewhere when needed. As for the specific selection criteria for the Holy Grail Knight, only GW knows it. Some people waste half their lives trying to find the Holy Grail, while others find it after just a few months. For example, Duke Cassion of the Principality of Paraon (who is not yet born in the current timeline) was less than 20 years old when he became a Holy Grail Knight. As for Lawn, it was an obvious shady operation.

However, I personally have a guess that the journey to find the Holy Grail may be a formality. After all, Gilles and his group directly became the Holy Grail. The Holy Grail Trial is essentially that some people are more compatible with the power of the blood of God, while some people, although powerful and pious, cannot become the Holy Grail because of insufficient compatibility. Of course, this is just my guess, not an official setting.

Chapter 210: Parawong Has No Secrets

The dream ended here.

Almarik opened his eyes, his mind was blank. After a while, the Holy Grail Knight, noticing some movement, turned his head and found that the room was almost full of people.

They are all acquaintances.

"I...wait a minute," Jazz straightened up from the bed and looked at his hands in disbelief, "Is this an illusion? I clearly remember that I have..."

"You are lucky," said Evelyn, standing in the middle of the room with her arms folded. "Although my strength has not recovered much, I can still save you. Now that you have woken up, it is time to tell you the truth."

Almarik chewed on the word again and again: "Truth?"

He looked around the room, which was probably a wine cellar. Including Duke Paraon, all the important people who were still alive in the principality were basically here. Of course, this did not include the prophetesses and saints. They could not sit idly by and watch the knights get into a difficult battle in the previous battle, but they did nothing, so they all died.

Apart from Egwene herself, the most conspicuous people in the room were undoubtedly the twelve "Imperial Knights." They wore full-body armor in the style of the Empire, with their helmets tucked under their arms, and stood in a row in the corner, forming two distinct groups from the Parawon people.

The Parravonians would occasionally glance at them, and when the Imperials looked over, they would immediately look away. Although no one spoke, every Parravon knight had already realized the identities of these strange Imperials, which not only brought them great confusion, but also made them more anxious.

"Whatever you want to tell us, Lady Egwene," the Duke said, "the ser has awakened, and it is time to reveal the mystery. As you promised before, the truth, the truth will answer all questions."

"This is a very long story," Knight Ji nodded slightly, "It all started two hundred years ago..."

Egwene revealed the half-truth she had told Karl to the Bretonnians. If it weren't for the twelve Imperial Holy Grail Knights, the Parravons would have denounced Egwene as a witch who was misleading people. Facing the audience's half-believing and half-doubting eyes, the Knight Princess slowly told the story carefully fabricated by the Jiedushi, and emphasized the betrayal of a certain elven god and the other party's evil conspiracy to enslave Bretonnia.

"It's... well, a very incredible story," the Duke stumbled as he organized his words, "Your subordinates are very convincing." The Duke glanced at the Imperial Holy Grails in the corner. "But this alone is far from enough. I can't be sure if this is some kind of trick of the Dark Gods. I, um, I mean, I need something more convincing," the Duke raised his head and looked at Egwene, "My duty is to guard the territory left by my ancestors and keep her from being harmed by anything."

Almarik was about to speak when Egwene waved her hand to signal him not to speak. "If someone had dared to speak to me like this two hundred years ago, I would have killed him, because his words offended the gods," the knight said. "After living as a human for two hundred years, I understand more and more how mortals think and how they view the world."

She nodded to the Imperial Holy Grails, who immediately sent four of them out of the wine cellar. A moment later, accompanied by some kind of hoarse and low roar, the four Imperial Holy Grails that had gone out earlier pulled the thick iron chain and worked together to move a Chaos Spawn that was tied up with many flowers into the wine cellar. Many Paraon people exclaimed, thinking that Egwene was going to kill them with this thing.

They subconsciously reached for their waists, and only realized they had surrendered after finding nothing there.

"My Lord!" Sir Almarik could not help but say, "You are still very weak now, this..."

“That’s fine.” Evelyn walked up to the struggling Chaos Spawn, her chains rattling. “I understand their concerns. Since they want an indisputable proof, I’ll give them that proof.”

Knight Ji felt sorry for her newly borrowed points, and summoned the War Codex that only the Codex Master and system units could see. This Chaos Egg was prepared long ago. In order to catch it, Dustan, who was far away in Kewang Castle, sent troops to dig deep into the ground and found it in a ravine after much effort.