A dark ritual, a strict blessing from the god of darkness and an inevitable release of desires, shook Eigel's grand tent in the Temple of the Nymphs on Randri Island for several days before it finally concluded.
Undoubtedly, a child of darkness would be born under the curse of terror, capable of being born in just two months or even less.
Now, the chosen champions of the god of terror, Eigel, the chaos wizard Chakoy, the chaos champion Cowind, and Eigel's nephew, also a chaos champion, Eigel-Yarl (hereafter referred to as Yarl), gathered in the ruins of the temple to discuss their next move.
"We will head south, killing every Bretonnian we encounter, destroying everything we see until my child is born. I will celebrate my son's birth with the blood of the southerners," Eigel stated, sitting on his black skull throne. "But before that, I must wait for the rest of the army to arrive. Cowind, how long until my army arrives?"
"About five days," replied the chaos champion Cowind, placing his great axe at his feet, his face marked with stripes of paint and the signs of chaos, a symbol of his allegiance.
"Then we shall wait a little longer," Eigel decided, waiting for the Skarins' great army to arrive.
There was no doubt that the five thousand barbarian warriors around Eigel were elite soldiers, but Eigel was well aware that despite their bravery, their lack of heavy siege weapons was an undeniable fact.
Once the northern chaos mammoths and the chaos dwarves' hell cannons arrived at the front lines, it would be the end for the southerners!
...
Duke Dalheid of Leonath still knew nothing about the situation in the north. Dalheid was in his court, overwhelmed with problems, as the northern serfs had rebelled and occupied the castle, and he was planning to muster forces to retake the lost lands. He paid little attention to the temporary loss of contact with Randri Island on the coastline.
Meanwhile, at the Couronne headquarters of the Grail Knights, the Grand Master of the Grail Knights, Yules, received a prophetic dream from the Lady of the Lake.
A massive barbarian army had landed on Randri Island!
Upon hearing this news, the acutely aware Yules quickly got up.
It was still early morning, not yet dawn, and the streets of Couronne were completely quiet with no pedestrians in sight. Yules woke from his sleep, his hand clutching his chest as he gasped for air.
"My Lady... to entrust me with such a task... I will not disappoint," murmured Yules, the blanket sliding off his scar-covered body.
Yules touched his beard, already aged and no longer young.
A pair of white jade arms wrapped around his neck from behind, "What's wrong, dear, won't you sleep a bit more?"
A beautiful woman in a thin nightgown embraced him from behind.
"I have received a divine oracle from the Lady, Anna, I must go to the palace to see King Richard," Yules placed his hand over the woman's, his robust body presented before her, his eyes shining brightly, illuminating the room.
"A divine oracle from the Lady?!" This woman was Yules's lover, Annala, sister of Count Gallamante of the Bastonne Duchy, who immediately realized the gravity of the situation upon hearing it was an oracle from the Lady of the Lake.
"The situation is urgent, Anna, I must leave now, you continue to sleep," Yules got out of bed and began to dress.
"No, the Lady's command is above all, let me help you," Annala got up as well, her eyes filled with loving light, and began to help Yules don his full armor.
A suit of armor, comparable to a piece of art, was taken down, every inch of the armor was detailed with ancient scriptures and intricate silver craftsmanship, a shining blue cloak fluttered in the wind, its clasp a massive golden brooch in the shape of a grail, secured at the chest.
After adorning Yules with numerous prayer accessories and holy items, Annala patted his shoulder, "All set, you can go now."
Yules nodded silently.
As dawn broke, the Grand Master of the Grail Knights, using his privilege as the head of the Couronne division, forcefully entered the royal palace.
An hour later, at the royal palace's dining hall.
A long table covered with a white cloth, laden with bread, breakfast, honey, and cheese stretched over several meters.
King Richard, in casual attire, lifted a cup of hot milk, addressing the Grail Knight beside him, "Yules, you should not have disturbed me at this hour."
The aging king coughed a few times; he hadn't been sleeping well, tormented by a series
of recent events that kept him tossing and turning at night.
The defeat at Casfan earlier in the year sparked a political storm, followed by weeks of stalemate, then peasant rebellions, and the takeover of castles by serfs.
All these weighed heavily on King Richard as he struggled to maintain the fragile balance within the kingdom, not just between knights and peasants, but among the knights themselves.
"I apologize, my king, but the Lady has sent a divine oracle. A massive barbarian army has landed on Randri Island, slaughtering thousands of our people and desecrating the Lady's temple. We must organize a large army of knights immediately to aid the Duchy of Leonath, else Duke Dalheid's forces will be insufficient to counter this formidable chaos army. The Lady came to me in a dream, warning that this foe is unprecedentedly powerful," Yules got straight to the point, setting down his cutlery and speaking directly to Richard.
"Ding!" Richard's hands trembled, a silver fork fell to the floor.
"Why... why do bad things always happen together?" Richard's face displayed both worry and anger, "Chaos scum... always finding opportunities. The kingdom is weak now, Yules, do you understand?"
"I understand," Yules was not ignorant of the political landscape; he was acutely aware of the challenges the kingdom faced.
"You understand... you understand, you don't understand, dear Yules, Grail Knight Grand Master, the northern part of the kingdom has suffered greatly in the recent peasant uprisings, with unstable security. I need many troops to maintain order, and now you want to take them away," Richard shook his head, speaking slowly to Yules, "Do you realize the impact this will have?"
"My king, we have no choice. The invasion by chaos must be contained; we must face the enemy head-on!" Yules' eyes sparkled with determination as he stared back at Richard, "My king, chaos is the great enemy of our knightly kingdom, they must be eliminated first, or the entire kingdom will be engulfed in war, and countless citizens will be slaughtered!"
"I don't need you to remind me. I know what is urgent, I know which enemies we must focus on," Richard retorted irritably, picking up his silverware forcefully and placing it on the table, "The threat from chaos has been known to me since I was three years old, when my father told me!"
"…My king, I spoke out of turn," Yules was taken aback by Richard's anger and quickly apologized.
Richard pursed his lips, closing his eyes, his body seeming to tremble with anger as he struggled to control his emotions.
Yules's expression remained serious, his posture radiating with devotion, he came with the Lady's will, ready to fulfill his loyalty and duty, waiting for the king's decision.
"Yules, deploying troops isn't so simple... I've said it, the kingdom is very weak, prolonged unrest has made security very unstable, announcing troop mobilization due to a chaos invasion at this juncture will surely cause panic... The number of knights and troops in Couronne has dropped to its lowest point in nearly twenty years," Richard took a deep breath and continued, "Moreover, there's another significant issue—the granaries are nearly empty."
Yules nodded solemnly; the grain from the north, recently harvested, had been looted or burned by rebels before it could be collected. Even the collected grain required payment for the workers dispatched by merchants from Marlinburg, which was more expensive than if the serfs had harvested and submitted it themselves.
With unstable security, insufficient military numbers, and low food reserves, if the knightly kingdom were to assemble a large army for a campaign now, they would face widespread panic, low morale, and a possible severe test of the recently improved security level.
However, as Richard stated, the king also understood the threat from chaos. Faced with the invasion from the northern chaos, the king must respond to the Lady of the Lake's call and send reinforcements.
After a long silence, Richard shared his difficulties with Yules. The Grail Knight Grand Master was not a fool who lacked adaptability; Yules thought for a moment and then spoke to the king, "My king... we can ask for assistance from the dukes in the south, where the political situation is relatively stable. Whether it's Duke Berthelot of Bastonne, Duke Francois of Wintfort, or other dukes, their territories are stable and prosperous, capable of supporting us."
"Ah, I see, with a great enemy before us, personal grievances and internal opinions should be set aside. Unity is most important in combating chaos," Richard slowly nodded, "I will write letters, requesting military and material assistance from the south."
"…Gather the troops, Yules! No matter what, we cannot let chaos tread on the Lady's land!" Richard stood up, his aged body seemingly bursting with a
glimpse of past glory, "I will, as king, call upon the army, and you shall command this force. Take as much grain as you can from the granaries."
"I have only one request for you, Yules—bring back victory."
"Yes!" Yules stood proudly, looking up at Richard, then turned and left the royal palace.
Richard watched Yules leave, nodding to himself.
"Chaos scum shall not tread on the Lady's land!"
The king hastily finished his meal and went to his throne room to write letters, addressing them to the southern dukes—Berthelot, Francois, Bodric, Theodoric… and Ryan.
After writing the letters, Richard picked up a piece of parchment, took up a quill, dipped it in ink, but soon set it down again, looking at the written pleas for help with a bitter smile.
The quill was repeatedly picked up and set down, the trembling fingers and the changing expressions on Richard's face spoke of the king's struggle.
Emotionally, the king did not want to write these letters of request, as it was a blow to both his personal prestige and the royal authority. Unlike the Empire, where powerful Electors could directly ignore the Emperor's orders, in Bretonnia, the dukes, though independent, were bound by the code of chivalry and devotion to the Lady of the Lake. Richard knew that if he wrote these letters, the southern dukes would surely respond.
The king silently looked back, the portraits of past knight kings behind him watching him, the first knight king "the Unifier" Arthur, the second "the Reckless" Lewis, the third "the White Reaper" Guillaume, the fourth "the Greenskin Slayer" Ron, the fifth "the Young" Louis, the sixth "the Strong" Philip… up to his immediate predecessor, the knight king "the Tyrant" John II, who was brutally deposed by the Lady and the Grail Knights.
John I and John II, both denied and deposed by the Lady, thus erased from official records, left only empty frames in their place.
"Heh, the hardest word to write in this world is one's own name," Richard suddenly scoffed, took a deep breath, grasped his writing hand with his trembling left hand, and finally wrote his name down.
"Someone, take these letters to the Grand Cathedral of the Grail!"
"Yes!"
...
Gathering the troops took longer than Yules had anticipated. It took a week or even longer for over half of the knightly army to assemble in Couronne, with only two thousand knights and thirteen thousand troops gathered from the initially expected three thousand knights and twenty thousand troops.
Now he understood why Richard had so many reservations.
"We can't wait any longer! Gather the troops!"
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