Chapter 489 340. Night Parade of One Hundred Ghosts
This year's Reikland is particularly lively. Not only Vlad von Carstein and Delt Hesnich's undead army is heading towards Reikland along the Tarabek River. Altdorf swept over, and even the necromancers in the Gray Mountains and Bretonnia to the west of the Gray Mountains moved.
As both moons shone like crescents, somewhere in the gray mountains overlooking Reikland there was a crack. Old Jasper rode out of there in his corpse truck. He sat on the top of the corpse truck. His head was covered by a hood, his face was shrouded in shadow, and his two silver eyes were in the rotten gray robe. Shiny in the middle. His corpse truck was hung with fragments of human skin, covered with spidery writing that glowed in the colors of Morse Ribb.
When the big bell on the corpse truck rings, the deceased will be summoned to old Jasper's side, no matter where the deceased lies. He is accompanied by a band of wights, ancient warriors who died long before the Age of Sigmar, and he leads them along the winding roads of the empire, through towns and settlements, and with human The dead increase the number of corpses.
The roads of Reikland are littered with the dead, awakened from their slumber by the blasphemous whispers of the Necromancer, or buried in places soaked with Dehar energy. These dead march endlessly, while A large number of unlucky souls, living and dead, will also join them. As time passed, it slowly became a legend in Reikland. Many frightened tavern listeners sat around the fire and listened to the story of the corpse truck.
In the legend of Reikland, Old Jasper's team is called the Nightwanderer. These wandering dead who have haunted the land near the Gray Mountains for countless years follow Old Jasper, and he is responsible for standing on his own. Directing corpses on the corpse transport truck at night. But he is in turn controlled by a darker being, and it is under the orders of a darker being that he is cursed to wander around collecting the dead of the Empire.
Little is known about old Jasper's story. After all, living humans cannot break through the outer defenses, and the humans who actually see him become unlucky ghosts. One story states that he was nothing more than an ordinary corpse-keeper until he accepted the mission of Priest Maul, who was collecting the corpses of humans who died in what became known as the Crimson Shiver Plague. When he accepted the mission, he thought that Reverend More would protect him from the plague, but slowly red spots appeared on his skin and his muscles began to twitch.
Driven by anger and fear, old Jasper stole the body and sold it to wizards, doctors and other shady guys. After his crimes were exposed, the priests of More cursed him with eternal peace. , so even to this day he is still wandering around seeking revenge on Reverend More by stealing the bodies in Reverend More's care.
Of course, this is just one of the stories. There are also stories that old Jasper was a necromancer who delved too deeply into forbidden magic. He was arrogant and tried a spell that was far beyond his own ability. In the end, his soul was overloaded. The spell was torn to pieces. Now he wanders, searching for fragments of his soul, and the void in his body draws the dead to him.
In addition, there are many stories about old Jasper. Some people say that he is a cursed liar and the apprentice of a certain necromancer. In short, all kinds of stories made up by humans surround this necromancer like flies. As for the specific truth, no one can know or be sure. It is even doubtful whether he himself remembers the truth.
Jasper Sr. knew he had a purpose, a mission he had to complete or wander around forever, that collecting the dead was the price he had to pay, and he was almost done, and he could feel that maybe just... But his goal suddenly changed from that darker existence.
Some people say that old Jasper is not the real owner of the Night Walker Corpse, but someone else. Perhaps he serves a prominent nobleman who exists in the world in some form after his death. The nobleman Send him out from the ruined castle to gather new members for the court. A twisted, filthy vampire of the House of Nikolay might also need someone like him to obtain the raw materials for his magic. Of course, there is also a theory that he may be serving Drake Fells.
In short, where the Night Walker appears, each settlement has a story to accompany it. There are also some classic dark children's literature, which tells the story of a child from the next door family peeking out of the window when the Night Walker passes by. , and therefore disappeared. However, such stories are not fabricated out of thin air, but have some basis. It is true that some human beings disappeared for no reason, and no human being has ever seen these missing humans again.
The bodies of the night-walking corpses were covered with rags from their lifetimes, with the exception of Mhawa and her fellow corpse demons. They all wore wolf-skin cloaks, and their shields were engraved with the faded emblem of a dying wolf, with There were wounds from spears.
Unlike tribes and warbands, the undead have little organizational structure, and they do not maintain dedicated scouts or ambush teams. But old Jasper's night-walking corpse was not like this. His corpse truck was in the center of the team, and the corpse monsters following him were scattered around him. Of course, this surrounding is just a vague statement, specifically referring to the scattered around one kilometer away from him. His paranoia made the powerful dead very close to him, while his flanks and rear were more likely to be occupied by the laggards. and newcomers.
After the War of Vengeance, humans came to the Old World, which before the Age of Sigmar was home to many human tribes that were at war with each other. Great chieftains rose and fell, fighting orcs, beastmen, and each other in an endless quest to claim lands for themselves.
Somewhere in the current Reikland was once ruled by a chief named Mhawa. Although she was a powerful warrior in her own right, she was better at forging a powerful alliance. In the ongoing conflict, she Eyes turned to the orcs, and a tentative alliance was formed, but neither side had ever trusted the other, but their combined strength gave them the power to deal with the orcs.
Although both sides distrusted each other, trade occurred, with the beastmen handing over trophies of plunder or meat from hunts in exchange for weapons and sacrifices.
At the same time, the screaming shaman gave magic to humans and allowed chaos to control human hearts. Mhawa was also affected, but she never succumbed to chaos. She believed that the chaos gods were usurpers and intruders. The one who wants to take away the gods and land that her people have worshiped for generations. Her actions ultimately became her undoing, her lieutenants had no qualms about joining the Chaos Gods, and she died in an ambush and her crown was taken away from her.
After her death, Mhawa received the treatment she deserved. She was placed in a huge tomb, and her soul was captured by powerful magic. Her lieutenants hoped that her soul would be kept there until the end. The moment comes. In this way, her soul stayed there, her soul roaring in the prison. In the process, her tribe fell into civil war, Sigmar rose, and this land became the Empire and became Reikland.
Thousands of years have passed. Old Jasper passed Mhalwa's tomb while wandering. His magic allowed Mhalwa's soul to return to the withered body. The terrible power shattered the captured Mhalwa soul. With magic, Mhalwa has now become a powerful ancient wight, appearing in a familiar yet unfamiliar world. Mhalwa and her followers can now only stay not far away from the despicable necromancer, surrounded by With that damn corpse truck.
Mhawa knew that if old Jasper died, the magic that kept her body intact would lose its usefulness, and she might eventually return to true death. She would have to become Jasper's defender and protector. Servants. However, her will is as strong as she was in life. She would not succumb to Chaos in life, nor would she be manipulated by a despicable necromancer in death. Her anger at this prison is the same as when she was in the tomb. As much.
Although Mhawa now serves Jasper Sr., she has been looking for an opportunity to regain her rightful dominance. This land was hers, then and now. The people in this land were hers, living and dead, and one day, she would make old Jasper realize that she was no one's puppet.
As the most powerful corpse demon champion, Mhawa naturally rides a skeleton war horse at the forefront of the night wandering zombie team, but there are still some beings walking ahead of her, and those beings are the messengers of old Jasper.
Before the Nightwalker arrives at a human settlement, a messenger dressed in colorful rags will appear first. He dances along the road, his body movements like a puppet with its strings cut off, ancient bells tinkling, each movement accompanied by a rhythmic crackle. He sometimes attracts onlookers who follow him to find where the real show begins.
However, the performance of the messenger cannot be appreciated by human children. Instead of joy, the children have nightmares. When they arrive at the place where the performance begins, he will push away the wide brim of his hat and reveal a terrifying smile, which affects his... With his face flayed clean of flesh and blood, his ever-evaluating eyes shining in the light of Morthrib, he would bow with the courtesy only a human nobleman could and issue an ultimatum.
If the villagers do not obey the messenger's ultimatum, the night-walking zombies behind him will take away the corpses by force. In the process, more fresh corpses will join the night-walking zombies.
Of course, messengers sometimes don't do this. Sometimes they appear in cemeteries in human towns, inviting the dead to crawl out of their graves and join the ranks of the night zombies. He will lead these resurrected beings in a weird dance.
It is said that whenever this scene occurs, the human dead in the entire settlement will disappear. Occasionally, villagers will stand up to resist the messenger. The messenger without force will be beaten to death and fall into silence again. Over the past few decades, reports of the destruction of messengers have appeared countless times in human officialdom. However, messengers always keep appearing as if they are refreshed, and this is indeed the case. Whenever a messenger fell silent, another dead man would start dancing. His strange and twitching movements made the messenger stand out from the other stumbling companions, and he kept dancing until he jumped to the front of the line.
Old Jasper's orders to the dead were not perfect. He did not have such heaven-defying items as the Warpstone and the Book of Nagash, but the wheels of the corpse truck would leave lingering Deha energy after running over the road. , so the night wandering corpse will leave a series of stragglers wherever it passes. These dead people either escaped from the main body, or were awakened by the Deha energy that contaminated the places where the night wandering corpses passed, and slowly formed a new group of wandering undead, aimless except for the need to kill.
There are many types of dead in the Night Walking Corpse, most of which are zombies. They come from simple cemeteries serving the smallest human settlements. In addition to zombies, the ranks of the Night Walking Corpse are also filled with a large number of skeletons. Usually these skeletons From the battlefield beneath the land. Most of the dead raised from mass graves do not last very long; these beings are usually the accidental creation of the necromancer, destined to collapse after dawn, but there are always some exceptions. No matter where the zombies go, some yellowed and cracked skeletons follow them from beginning to end. These skeletons are very special. The skulls composed of shaking bones, snake-like spines and spider-like ribs always emit sounds. The crackling voices, like a choir of death, chant in eternal mockery the elegies dedicated to More.
These singing skeletons were summoned by old Jasper in an ossuary. It is said that the ossuary is actually a small church of Morr. It has been the resting place of Morr's believers for generations, and bones are decorated on the walls. , the skull watches over the followers of Mor. But the chapel was abandoned, Moore's protection gradually dissipated, and the chapel slowly hidden in the forest became a local legend.
Jasper Sr. was happy to maintain the choir well beyond the point where it should have collapsed, and the Death Choir seemed to be the signature presence of his team. When he planned to pillage the town, the Death Choir's song could weaken the will of the wall guards. , he would sometimes decorate the corpse truck with skeletons to provide himself with further protection when necessary.
Now old Jasper has a new mission. He no longer needs to collect the dead, but leads the Nightwanderers through the Reikland to Altdorf. At the same time, not far behind Yeyou's corpse, another group of grotesquely assembled troops also walked following the Deha energy emitted by the corpse truck, collecting the fallen dead.
——Jules
de Fontaine is a knight of the Kingdom of Bretonnia. He believes in the law of knights. He believes that knights have the right to rule everyone and should be obeyed in all aspects, but at the same time he will also work for the interests of peasants. Considering that he is an excellent warrior, he led a group of chivalrous knights into a new round of chivalrous wars. This type of war has lasted for more than several generations. Slowly, he became the mortal enemy of the orcs, with strict discipline. Known for strict demands for obedience. Under his command, the chivalrous knights brought deserved deaths to countless orcs, and he proved himself to be a capable warrior.
Sometimes, however, success is also a curse that can make people paranoid and superstitious. When the Orcs retreated, Jules decided to give chase, but his mistake was that he believed the Orcs were just raging animals with no understanding of strategy or tactics. As he pursued the orcs, a horde of orcs and goblins emerged from the rugged lands, surrounding him and the chivalrous knights.
Unable to break through, the Bretonnian knights fought to the end, facing off against waves of charges from the orcs and the arrows of the goblins. After three days of fighting, all the chivalrous knights were lost. When the orcs danced on the Bretonnian corpses to celebrate their victory, he did not die. The dying man was buried in a pile of corpses. The corpses were so heavy that he could not move. It took several weeks until He squeezed out of the corpse when it was rotten enough for him to climb out.
Jules didn't know how he lived for so long. Maybe he was under the protection of the goddess or something else. He lost the memory of this period of time. He was troubled by hallucinations for a long time, and gradually He realized that he had some kind of abnormal appetite. Sometimes, he was like a raging madman. The only thing he could remember was that he returned to his territory on foot. The closer he got to the territory, the more his consciousness became... Sober, he imagined that he would be the hero's return, the only survivor of a heroic and tragic defeat, but this was not the case...
When Jules came to his castle and asked the guards to open the door, the guards did not listen to him. His wife was frightened and fainted on the spot when she received the news and came to see him. Because at this moment, he became a complete monster. His face was sunken and grayish, his teeth were like fangs, his hands were bloody claws, the stench of death followed him everywhere, and his muscles and internal organs were exposed from the cracks in his skin.
Driven from their land by his own family, soldiers and peasants, and chased by brandishing spears, branding irons and pitchforks, Jules, a knight of Bretonnia, is enraged. Deprived of his due rights, but his remaining sanity did not allow him to take revenge on his family, he left the land that once belonged to him and came to a land where he could rule again.
Finally, Jules came to Mousilon, a cursed place where people and monsters, as long as they are strong enough, can win the corresponding rights. There, he completely abandoned the laws of chivalry. He was in a darkness and stench. He found the land that belonged to him, and a new baron was born.
The palace of the cannibal knight Jules occupies the entire sewer of Mousilon. It is extremely large and does not look like a sewer, but more like the nave of a huge church. Between the pillars is a small pyramid with steps going up step by step. At the top is a throne made of bones and trophies and weapons. Flags are hung everywhere because his nobles want to hang their own flags next to the lord. In addition to the throne and banners, a vast array of loot is on display, ranging from antique furniture dating back to the first Landuin to exquisite tapestries tarnished by moisture.
The throne is surrounded by fawning courtiers, jesters, poets, etc., robed ghouls play garbled and horrific notes on stolen trumpets announcing the arrival of palace guests, and so-called palace scribes play on rotting books. Scribing and scribbling, the palace was always busy because Jules didn't need to sleep, so the nobles dressed as ghouls had to flatter Jules.
Jules had a formidable image as a warrior, with a tall, well-proportioned figure and a handsome face, but now his face was pale and terrifying, with maggots and flies crawling around him. Fortunately, his sharp blue pupils were intact. , these pupils have many meanings, which means that although his body has degenerated into a ghoul, his intelligence has been retained, but this is a curse for him.
Jules is tired of this kind of life. He hates everything around him. He can always think of the years of fighting, riding on a war horse and charging at the enemy. He doesn't like these boring tricks. He wants to do something else. He wants to change. He wanted to return to his family, accompany them, and become an adventure knight...
Just when Jules was troubled, like someone giving him a pillow when he was sleepy, a necromancer visited his palace. The necromancer was lame at first. After praising the palace and his greatness, he expressed his intention.
The name of the necromancer is Obald, and he also has the title "Father of Bones". He was originally a humble pig farmer in the Duchy of Briogne, at least before Lacasse came. Lacasse The arrival of the girl broke his peaceful life. During his wanderings, he accidentally learned the dark skills of undead magic. He experienced many things in his not-so-long years, and not long ago he got a piece of news, far away in the gray world. An extremely powerful ring is hidden in Altdorf on the other side of the mountains, and a group of vampires are about to besiege Altdorf.
Jules was just one of the people Obald visited. He had already visited various entities in Mousilon, but those entities were not interested in his proposal. He knows what Jules needs, and he tells Jules that Altdorf hides an extremely powerful ring, a ring powerful enough to restore Jules to his former self.
Now, Jules, wearing a set of custom-made plate armor and holding a huge two-handed sword, is riding the skeleton horse given by Obald, leading his ghoul nobles and Obald's undead army to walk in the gray mountains. , heading towards Altdorf on the other side of the Gray Mountains, and immediately after crossing another mountain range, the team will reach Reikland.
There are a total of seven various bridges in the city of Altdorf, connecting the north, south and east districts of Altdorf. At this time, Darkus was walking on the Reik Bridge from the south city back to the north city. stronghold.
Rick's Bridge is a busy traffic thoroughfare, designed and supervised by dwarves. At night, the bridge is full of pedestrians, either returning to the north city or going to the south city. The bridge has been used for thousands of years. It was crumbling, as if it was not an arch bridge but a suspension bridge made of wooden planks.
Darkus, who was walking on the bridge, recalled the Nagaryth Bridge in Krakarond. It was not because of the messy structure and style, but because the bridge levied a toll... Both ends of the bridge There is an official toll office that sells tickets covering multiple crossings of the bridge. There are annual tickets, season tickets, one-way tickets and round-trip tickets. There are many kinds of tickets, but they are immortal people, and the group of humans did not charge them anything. cost.
Darkus, who was walking, noticed something was wrong. The spellcasters around him suddenly stopped in the middle of the bridge and looked in one direction at the same time.
"Is there a problem?" Darkus asked with a frown.
"Someone is spying on us," Drusala said calmly.
At the same time, Volach Haken appeared in front of Vlad von Carstein's tent with his Blood Dragon Knights.
"Walachi Haken? Let me think about what kind of wind brought you here?"
"Of course it's because of the battle, Varshanish!"
After paving the way, Heinrich Kemmler began to enter the field. According to the chronology, it appeared after 2400, so I found another replacement
(end of this chapter)