Warhammer Divine Throne

PS. Thanks to the book friends ”Crying Bean”, ”BenjaminWbj”, and ”MADMAX” for their generous rewards. There will be two updates today, the second one will be in the evening.

In the meeting room of the Baron Castle, Laine sat in the main seat, all his subordinates including the two witches and his brother Angerong were there, everyone was watching Rangers Des and Estelle’s presentation.

A huge map of Charon Forest and Musillon was hung on the wall of the meeting room.

”A few days ago, I entered the forest interior, searching for traces of the Berelac Thief Gang.” Ranger Des was still wearing his usual green hood and white face veil, with a heavy deerskin coat, pointing to the interior of Charon Forest, ”The traces of the Berelac Thief Gang were not hard to find, I found them quickly, but they were moving deeper into Charon Forest.”

”I managed to capture a thief, from whom I learned that recently the vampires in Musillon were on the move, and the Blood Red Duke was trying hard to organize a vampire army, this process was very slow, but the Blood Red Duke’s attitude was very determined...” The ranger spoke continuously, but Laine interrupted him, ”What happened to that thief later?”

”...I killed him and then used drugs to turn him into a puddle of pus.” Des paused for a moment, and said indifferently.

”In the future, try not to kill, of course I’m referring to humans, elves, and dwarves, okay, continue please.” Laine added, then gestured for Des to go on.

”Understood, ahem... As we were saying, the thief gang is retreating deeper into Charon Forest because the Red Duke is gathering an army, simultaneously, a large number of Blood Knights appeared and attacked various outposts, resulting in heavy losses for those guarding against vampire movements. According to some guards who fled, the attire of those Blood Knights resembled... Holy Grail Knights, and some guards even claimed that these Blood Knights called themselves ’Black Chalice Knights’.” The ranger was a bit uncertain, saying hesitantly, ”Though unable to verify the truth, the continuous attacks by Blood Knights on outposts and villages near Musillon are facts, thus the Berelac Thief Gang decided to relocate.”

”Black Chalice Knights?!” Hex exclaimed, ”What’s that?!”

”Black? Chalice? Could it be? There’s a Holy Grail Knight fallen?” Olivier also said incredulously.

Everyone’s eyes were on Laine, as he was the Holy Grail Knight.

”The vampires desecrated the graves of the Holy Grail Knights, using vile undead magic to revive the remains.” Laine frowned, ”I once defeated a Black Chalice Knight and prayed about this to the Lady, which resulted in Her Highness Mogiana taking the Holy Grail remains to be interred at either the Holy Grail Cathedral or Lady Cathedral, followed by the great flood... But over a dozen Holy Grail remains have been desecrated, turning them into Black Chalice Knights.”

”I see.” Steward Kasenberg nodded, having a deeper understanding of the baron’s power.

The atmosphere in the meeting room was very heavy, only Angerong nonchalantly tasted the venison jerky sent by the wood elves.

”Continue, Des.” Laine gestured for the ranger to proceed.

”Yes, my baron, upon learning this, I traversed from south to north through Charon Forest, arriving at the border between Boldro Duchy and Connaught Duchy, and indeed, the Red Duke is slowly forming a vampire army, so I hurried back here to report this to the baron.” Des finished speaking.

Ranger Knight Lops stood up, walked to the large map, and said in a deep voice, ”My baron, the flood at the start of the year caused massive damage to the undead in Musillon, according to scout reports, numerous trade posts, residences, and various tombs were destroyed by the flood, under such circumstances, for the Red Duke to gather a vampire army requires immense effort, my baron, could this be a test?”

”I don’t know, nevertheless, the flood summoned by the Lady nearly set Connaught’s structures back twenty years, but... don’t forget, everyone, the kingdom hasn’t recovered from the great war either. More than a year ago, the Knightly War cost the kingdom thousands of knights and tens of thousands of troops, to this day, many duchies haven’t regained their strength.” Laine said calmly from his seat, ”Yes, the Red Duke and his Musillon need tremendous effort to gather an army, but isn’t the kingdom the same? Under such circumstances, whoever seizes the initiative first will control the advantage in war.”

Meanwhile, Laine looked at the map, lost in thought.

On the surface, Laine’s domain and the Duke of Connaught’s domain do not share a border, Connaught’s south is separated from Boldro by the Grismore River, and the east borders Bastogne Duchy, seemingly unrelated to Laine’s domain.

But a simple analysis of the map reveals that Laine’s Baron Gene’s Domain and the Cursed City Musillon are separated almost solely by Charon Forest, once through Charon Forest, the vampire army could charge directly into Laine’s territory!

The land legally possessed by a duchy does not equal the land actually controlled by the duke, in reality, Charon Forest is an unclaimed zone, nothing can stop the vampires’ advance, especially not the Black Chalice Knights.