Volume 3 Takeoff Chapter 432: War
So for the next few days , Levi stayed in the dwarf fortress.
After realizing the advantages of constructs such as the Death Guard in fighting the Skaven Plague, the dwarves' enthusiasm became even higher.
They had originally intended to use them only as an auxiliary, but now it seems that they may gradually become part of the main force.
For this reason, the dwarves supplied Levi with stone, metal and other materials in almost unlimited quantities, just to allow him to produce more Death Guards as quickly as possible.
Levi also became busier.
On the one hand, he has to constantly create various Death Guards;
On the other hand, he also had to go out frequently to slaughter enemies such as greenskins and goblins, because the soul crystals needed by the Death Guard had to be obtained from them personally.
The dwarves soon understood Levi's behavior, but they did not show any strange looks at him. Instead, they were very happy.
Because Levi made those hateful greenskins unable to rest in peace even after death, but instead had to fight for them, the dwarves, and kill more greenskins. This is certainly worth rejoicing!
Finally, it’s time to repair the one hundred dragon golems.
However, after actually practicing it, he felt that he had slightly underestimated the difficulty of the actual operation.
Fortunately, the materials were sufficient, and he had accumulated a lot of experience in making Death Guards in the past, so after spending a few days and using some of Leila's semi-finished products, he had thoroughly mastered it.
Today, he not only successfully activated all the remaining dragon golems, but also mastered the expertise of making these two types of dragon golems.
Compared to the dwarf's gold coins and the like, this was his biggest gain in the past few days.
While he was busy, the dwarves could defend with peace of mind as they had just defeated tens of thousands of greenskin troops and had reinforcements from Khalida.
Seeing this situation, the two dwarf ancestor heroes got some Death Guards from Levi and left with their respective troops.
They were all anxious to return to Eight Peaks to fight the greenskins with Belegar, because the battle situation there was more urgent.
At the same time, they did not forget to invite Levi, saying that if he had the chance he must go to Bafeng Mountain to enjoy the hospitality of the dwarves.
Of course Levi agreed very happily. Apart from anything else, the nine volumes of Nagash hidden inside were enough for him to go there in person.
However, the time is not right yet, the dwarves are not in the most critical moment, and his ability is not enough to turn the tide of the battle.
At the very least, he would have to wait until the Grim One's revenge army successfully reached the Badlands and achieved some results before he would consider heading to Eight Peaks Mountain.
While Levi was working hard, Donna, Elegy and others did not slack off. They began to frequently take the initiative to attack the greenskins and goblins around them.
With Khalida's troops acting as cannon fodder, their subordinates suffered minimal losses, but gained a large amount of experience points.
One of the reasons is that Amazon is naturally warlike and aggressive, but another reason may be that they were stimulated by Levi.
Now he can communicate with the goddess on an almost equal footing many times. In addition to the wisdom he has shown before, it is also because of his potential that the goddess has recognized him.
If they don't work harder, the gap between them and Levi will become bigger and bigger, and they don't want to be seen as a burden.
Seeing their performance, Cindy, Sally, Sefa, Sonia, and even Oduin and Bayoru who were usually not very enthusiastic about this, all fought bravely.
It's okay to be lazy occasionally, but if everyone is working hard and you are still slacking off, then it would be too conspicuous.
Seeing this situation, Levi was very relieved.
It’s not that he is really that black-hearted. In fact, if those old subordinates who followed him were tired of this life of fighting and killing all day long, he would arrange a retirement position for them.
For example, the halfling Sam, the witch Tiwa, the old wizard Tess who stayed in the town, and even Lisadilan and Zhou Miyin.
But if they are willing to work hard to catch up, he will naturally give them more conveniences and opportunities!
At the same time, the entire main world was in turmoil and war.
In addition to greenskins, ratmen and beastmen, more evil races, such as gnolls, trolls, and even kobolds, have also launched large-scale wars and attacked their hostile races.
Whether it was a pre-planned plan or they just wanted to take advantage of the situation, it did put increasing pressure on the dwarves.
The only thing to be thankful for is that the rat people’s main attack direction is not them, but the many human empires.
They swarmed out of the sewers, and soon almost all human countries, from south to north, from east to west, were drawn into the war.
As the ratmen displayed more and more abilities, the situation in many human kingdoms was not much better than that of the dwarves.
Compared with dwarves, humans have the advantage of having more priests and mages, but they do not have the dwarves' natural magic resistance, so their resistance to the plague is relatively weak.
Moreover, the dwarves all live in various fortresses, and the roads leading to the outside are either usually blocked or narrow paths.
Just send some powerful Hammer Warriors or Iron Crusher Warriors, and a few Iron Dragon Hand Artillerymen, and you can hold out for a very long time.
If it is a heroic unit, it is very common to fight one against a hundred.
But humans have too many entrances and exits in their sewers, and the rats who have lived there for who knows how many years could easily launch attacks on dozens or hundreds of different locations at once.
There are enough of them, but the human defenders are limited.
More importantly, they take the initiative and can launch attacks at any time and decide where to focus their attacks.
But humans can only defend passively, and are unable to determine the main attack direction of the ratmen in a short period of time, which is very passive.
As for completely sealing off the sewers, or proactively going in to eliminate the ratmen, that is unrealistic.
The sewer system has existed for more than a thousand years, so it is not so easy to change it, not to mention that after so many years, many sewers have been expanded by the ratmen to an unknown extent, and many have even been dug directly to connect to the Underdark.
It would be a very foolish choice to rashly attack the ratmen who are familiar with the terrain.
So far, dozens of forces, large and small, have tried to do this, but without exception, all ended in failure. Instead, they were taken advantage of by the rats and suffered heavy losses. More than one village or town was even lost.
The rats have no desire to possess; they simply kill all living things and pack up the corpses, food, and all other usable resources before returning to the sewers or the Underdark.
They are well aware of their own strengths and weaknesses. Killing and occupation are not their primary goals. They just want to obtain food and various supplies so that they can continue to develop.
If the rats occupied the town, it would attract a massive siege from the enemy.
The region that suffered the heaviest losses was probably Averland, one of the twelve provinces of the Sigmar Empire.
Their leader, Marius Redolf, who had the qualification of elector and was called "the Mad Count", went down himself.
Given his status and position, he is able to lead by example and take personal risks to share the people's worries, which is indeed worthy of praise.
But he underestimated the Nezumi.
In addition to the many methods they have demonstrated before, the ratmen have developed new weapons, poison gas bombs that combine dimensional stone, plague, and magic.
Just imagine how dangerous and deadly it would be to endure such an attack in a narrow sewer.
The "Mad Count" managed to escape by relying on his high level and powerful equipment, but it is said that his personal guards were almost wiped out.
At the same time, his rune sword, Mother of Ruins, which was the symbol of the Elector, was also lost in the chaos.
He is currently offering a large reward to recover the lost property and is once again stepping up the crackdown on the ratmen.
If it were anyone else, they might be scared, but there was a reason why he was called the "Mad Count".
When he was young, he once held a long sword and killed countless ordinary bees from South Mountain to North Mountain, and called it war. Similar things happened more than once.
But no matter what, after this news came out, many races and forces once again increased their attention to the ratmen.
Although the intelligence showed that the other party tied poison gas bombs to their bodies and launched a suicide attack, which caused the "Mad Count" to suffer heavy losses.
But if you think about it, it is only a matter of time and materials for the rats to convert them into other forms, such as bullets or shells.
Soon after, another piece of news came out that the rats had launched an attack on Nuln, a major military town of the Sigmar Empire and also the city with the most advanced war equipment, and the scale of the attack was unprecedented.
Although the defenders there are very powerful, many churches also have temples, and there are even three legendary beings:
The Grand Mage of Death - Cemetery Rose, one of the two great chanters of the Church of Sigmar, Casmir IX, and a powerful warrior known as the Titan Executioner - Theodore.
However, due to the large number of ratmen, the sudden attack, and the obvious lack of defense of the defenders, the city still fell into a brief chaos.
Legendary heroes are also human beings, and they have their own things to do. Of course, they can't stare at the city's sewers all day long. They don't have that obligation or responsibility.
After repelling the ratmen, an inventory was taken afterwards. Thanks to the outstanding performance of the three strong men, the defenders suffered very minor losses, but the arsenal was ambushed.
The rats stole a large amount of raw materials and knowledge related to the manufacture of artillery, which may be their real purpose.
At the same time, this confirmed their previous speculation that the rat people might also want to take the opportunity to create special cannons that use poison gas, plague and dimensional stone as ammunition!
After learning this information, even Levi couldn't help but become cautious.
The ratmen they knew were already very strong.
But this may still not be the entire strength of the rats. Gradually appearing on the battlefield, are the rats trying to test their results through actual combat?
At the same time, in the south of the Sigmar Empire, separated by a mountain range, a large number of beastmen began to gather rapidly on the outskirts of the great forest of the Wood Elves.
Outsiders might think that the beastmen wanted to join in the fun while the attention of humans and other races was distracted and they had no time to pay attention to them.
But Levi got the news from Chen Zhui, the last man in the world, which was yes and no.
The Beastman does want to take advantage of the opportunity to cause trouble, but he doesn't just want to be a supporting role, he wants to be the protagonist!
Malagor, the Dark Omen; Kazzak, the One-Eye; Morgul, the Shadow; Moloch, the Wormtongue; Taunos, the Bronze Bull; Gothor, the Beast King; Moonclaw, the Descendant of the Evil Moon...
Many well-known beastman leaders in the main world have launched calls for all the beastmen in the main world to gather and launch an attack on the Great Forest of Athel Loren of the Wood Elves.
There are a large number of Beastmen in the wild , but they have never become a big threat. They have only caused some minor troubles, and have gradually become the experience points of the God-chosen heroes and the prey of the indigenous adventurers.
The fundamental reason is not only that most of them are weak and stupid, but also that they are not united enough. In order to compete for the position of leader, they will engage in brutal fights and sneak attacks against each other.
But the guys who initiated the call this time, without exception, are all at the legendary level. Their wisdom may still be insufficient, but their strength is definitely not a problem.
Even if they are beastmen, they would not be stupid enough to challenge their own powerful fellows whom they have no chance of fighting against.
The reason they chose Athel Loren was not only because the Wood Elves were their greatest enemies, but also because it was the largest and most energetic magical forest in the main world.
Once the beastmen use it as a sacrifice, I'm afraid they can even summon a bunch of demon lords, and a true god like Malar will probably show up directly.
As for the ordinary beastmen, there are even more of them, such as the Bray Shamans, the Gang Leaders, the Pack Lords, etc.
However, they are not all of one mind. At the end of the world, Chen Zhui received a special faction mission. Which beastman leader he chooses to follow may directly determine his future.
Because some of these beastmen are followers of Mala, some worship demons, some worship devils, and some worship other beastman gods.
Among the gods associated with Beastmen, Malar is the most well-known, but he is not the only one, and he is far from being the only one.
Rat people, tiger people, bear people, wolf people, fox people, monkey people, etc. all have their own gods.
Yeenoghu, who is widely worshipped by the gnolls, is simply a demon lord.
In this situation, these legendary beastman heroes must have their own plans.
What's more, for example, the descendant of the evil moon - Moon Claw, it itself is likely to be an ancient evil creature born from the dark side of the moon. It is not even a beastman at all, it is just here to join in the fun.
If Chen Zhui succeeds in standing on the side of the last days, he may reap a lot of rewards, but if he fails, I am afraid his end will be extremely tragic.
For example, Moon Claw had been killed several times in the past, but it would often be resurrected after a few hundred years.
So failure or death is of no importance to it, but its little brothers always end up dying.
For example, some beastmen worship demons, but the demons don't care about them at all and only treat them as toys.
Therefore, once you choose them, it would be fine if you can always win, but if you unfortunately fail once, Moon Claw and Demon can just run away, and the God-chosen hero will probably become the scapegoat.
But for such an important matter, Levi was unable to help Chen Zhui make a decision. He could only give him some Death Guards to help him.
In fact, Levi still had high expectations for him, because as long as the benefits were sufficient, he would be willing to be a traitor.
When dealing with the old black dragon Blake before, he had put in a lot of effort and provided a lot of information. If he could climb to a high position under the command of a legendary beastman this time, he might also play a significant role at the critical moment.
And although it is not certain at the moment, Levi also vaguely sensed that Lilith seemed to be somewhat dissatisfied with the current state of division among the elves.
If Chen Cui at the end of the world could follow the other beastmen and head straight to the wood elves' hometown, and then under his "persuasion", stab the beastmen in the back at the critical moment, wouldn't the wood elves' favorability towards him skyrocket?
This may be of some use to Lilith's plan. After all, after accepting Lilith's divinity, Levi has actually become her chosen one and her agent on the earth.
But that's a bit off topic. This place is too far away from the Great Forest of Athel Loren, and there are not many Beastmen nearby.
Ordinary wild beasts rarely live in mountainous areas; they prefer dense forests.
Because only in that kind of environment can they hide their bodies better and launch ambushes. If it is a normal large-scale head-on confrontation, it is almost impossible for them to defeat a human army with the same configuration.
Because the human army has sophisticated equipment, good coordination, assistance from priests and mages, and more importantly, a large number of gunpowder weapons.
There is a saying in the Sigma Empire: Steel, faith and gunpowder are the cornerstones of the empire, which is enough to explain the importance of these three to the empire.
The faith here refers to the belief in God, and can also be extended to priests, and even mages, etc. After all, they all use magic.
However, under such circumstances, the turmoil caused by the beastmen still made the main world even more chaotic.
Not only do they burn, kill and loot themselves, they also occasionally hold sacrificial ceremonies to summon evil demons and devils from other worlds to further expand the chaos.
For a time, except for the high elves on the island of Ulthuan, who were still enjoying a rare peace, all other races and forces, regardless of good or evil, chaos or order, were almost all caught up in the war.
At the same time, the undead, who had been lurking in dark corners, began to gradually emerge.
They did not have the courage to carry out large-scale massacres of dwarves or humans, because that would often lead to extremely strong retaliation.
But on the battlefield after the greenskins or beastmen had wreaked havoc, they still had the courage to collect some corpses and bind some souls.
Lucia had sent messages several times, saying that even the vampire queen, Neferata, could not ignore the temptation of such huge benefits.
She gave orders to many vampires, asking them to collect as many as possible, because corpses and souls were potential soldiers for them.
After the Silver Blood Army was destroyed, Neferata lost its largest military base. Especially the Terror Knights and Blood Knights lost there made her sad for a long time.
After losing the Nine Volumes of Nagash, she didn't know how long it would take to cultivate it again.
Of course, Levi's name was mentioned many times by Neferata for this reason, and every time her expression was full of resentment. He was obviously on her death list.
But more often than not, she was anxious.
Many outsiders who are not aware of the situation may misunderstand that this is because her blood relative, Khalida, is sharpening her knife and preparing to take revenge on her.
But Lucia knew very well that Neferata must be worried about Lilith's revenge. There were still many vampires in her Silver Peak who were transformed from the knights of the Kingdom of Batto.
They mistakenly believed the legend she deliberately spread, thinking that the Lady of the Lake was at Silver Peak, but they didn't expect that this was actually the base camp of vampires.
However, her state of anxiety and fear made it easier for Lucia and others to act, because she was worried all day and did not have much energy to manage the affairs of Silver Peak personally.
Lucia was already very powerful, and she had an equally powerful brother, Alucard, to assist her. After the Silver Blood Army was destroyed and Neferata lost a major helper, they quickly ascended to a high position.
After receiving the architectural drawings of the Nagash statue and the Terror Knight provided by Levi, her position became more and more stable.
However, in this situation, in order to further gain Neferata's trust, she was sometimes forced to do things she didn't want to do before, such as collecting the bodies and souls of innocent victims.
Although with her current status and position, she no longer needed to do it herself, but the order was issued by her after all, which made her feel very uncomfortable.
She even suspected that if she did this too often, her camp would be seriously shifted.
Sometimes, for the sake of kindness and justice, limited desecration of corpses is justifiable.
Because the dead may be reborn in the kingdom of the gods and obtain a more perfect body, or high-level priests may also have the ability to reshape their bodies.
But when it comes to the soul, the situation is often much more serious.
For example, Neferata actually hinted to her that she wanted to take her into her harem...
This is a bit outrageous, as they are all women.
She had vaguely heard of this rumor before, and she thought it was a joke at the time. She didn't expect it to be true.
In this way, it is completely understandable why Neferata has special trust in several high-level female vampires in Silver Peak, but is always wary of her.
Because those guys are likely to become Neferata’s wives or girlfriends!
Although he wanted to laugh, Levi could only comfort her a few more words, knowing that it wouldn't last long.
The reason why Lilith hasn't taken action yet is that she wants Lucia to have as much information and power as possible about Silver Peak so that she can eventually replace it.
Secondly, she was most likely secretly investigating how Neferata had determined that the Lady of the Lake was her.
She had been hiding for so many years and had never been noticed by any god, so how could she be discovered by a mere legendary vampire?
The other party is not just suspicious, Lilith must be eager to find out the reason.
But now listening to Lucia's description, Neferata was obviously extremely frightened. In this situation, in order to change the status quo, she probably only had three options, and under tremendous pressure, she would quickly choose one of them.
First, take the initiative to admit your mistake to Lilith, and then let yourself be slaughtered. Given the general character of vampires, the probability that she will choose this is infinitely close to zero.
Secondly, just run away.
The legend she spread about the Lady of the Lake took place in her old nest, Silver Peak. However, the main world was so big that it was very easy for her, as a legendary vampire, to hide as long as she left Silver Peak.
Finally, that is to hold on to a big thigh that is big enough to compete with Lilith and is willing to protect her existence.
But Levi felt that Lilith had been planning for some time, and if Neferata chose the first one, then she would most likely spare her life.
Lilith may look down on Neferata's fighting ability, but her entire vampire family is best at infiltration and charm, especially in many human kingdoms, where their intelligence network is very powerful.
But if she didn't know what was good for her and chose the other two, Levi was almost certain that Lilith would take direct action to eliminate future troubles!
