Chapter Text
Hell. That was the first thought many got when they first stepped foot into this realm. It did not matter what background a person had as the image of the afterlife for the souls of evildoers and wicked people was something present in many cultures across the globe. It might come in various forms or have another name attached to it, but it did not change the fact that the very concept of the underworld was something that was commonly associated with a place that was so horrendous that no one would ever dare to seek it out willingly. But this place certainly fit the description many people had in their head.
It was a landscape of jagged and broken mountain peaks and vast open fields of barren rock. Sharp stones and sand covered most of the landscape and in the distance the fiery peaks of active volcanoes filled the air with the thunderous rumbling of their eruptions as from their flanks and peaks lava streamed down in rivers. But this was more than just a volcanic and fiery landscape. Something that became painfully clear when one looked a bit closer. The sand and gravel found in this place was not entirely made of rock and minerals, but the crushed bones of countless victims. Gargantuan skeletal remains dotted the landscape as their monolithic bones towered over the landscape like skyscrapers. Mountains and boulders floated in the air and were fixed in places by massive brass chains and the streams of molten rock glowing in baleful red were not the only thing filling the crevices as there was also rivers of blood cutting deep into the bedrock of this place. Lightning sometimes cracked over the skies and inside the billowing plumes of fires and volcanoes while the skies above were sometimes displaying the writhing and ever-shifting forms of gargantuan ethereal entities.
A lifeless and barren realm that was so utterly hostile to life and one that was so by design. For this place was far worse than Hell. Hell served the purpose of scaring people from doing sinful things or to encourage one to do good. It served as a punishment of those that had done evil and inflict suffering for their crimes for all eternity. But this place was the sin of wrath made manifest and the one and only rule in this realm. For this was the realm of the Taker of Skulls, the Lord of Rage or most infamously known among his many titles the Blood God, Khorne.
And just as the realm of a Chaos God reflected the nature of its patron deity, so too did the Realm of Khorne reflect his endless craving for violence. An eternal battlefield where his followers and daemons battled one another for all eternity and only the strongest were permitted to exist. Regardless of whether they were one of his enemies or worshippers, those that dared to set foot in this place and were found wanting in prowess were mercilessly destroyed, their blood drunk by the red stone and sand, their bones crushed and their skulls taken and offered as tribute to the lord of this realm.
For Khorne does not care from whence the blood flows. Only that it does.
Amidst this nightmarish realm, two huge beings were locked in combat as they clashed in midair against one another with the loud metallic sound of metal striking metal. Again and again the two combatants collided with one another like birds of prey before they hurled from the skies like a meteor and fell into a large crack in the rocky ground. One of them shoved the other away and put some distance between them as both of them hit the bottom of the ravine, that was covered in bones, which in turn were crushed under the weight of the two fighters with a thundering sound echoing through and out of the crack in the earth. Both combatants though didn't care as they looked at the other with hate, circling one another like predators seizing one another up.
Both appeared to be demonic in appearence. Both were giants covered in red skin and sported a pair of large and tattered chiropteran wings on their backs. Both of them also sported sharp teeth and large horns, but those were the only similarities the two entities shared as they looked very different in everything else.
One of them was a bloodthirster, a greater daemon of Khorne. Among the daemons of the Ruinous Powers, they were the closest to the traditional appearance of demonic beings seen in Western culture. Standing almost 10 metres tall on a pair of cloven hooves on his goat-like legs, these giant humanoid daemons were monstrous sight to behold as they had lipless mouths filled with sharp fangs, large horns akin to those of bovines and caprids and muscular bodies and limbs. They were rage made manifest and led the cohorts of lesser Khornate daemons into battle while they themselves charged at their enemies for the sole purpose of slaughtering them in the name of their progenitor. The bloodthirster let out an enraged growl as he raised his weapons, a large axe in one hand and a long whip lined with spikes in the other. He also wore black armour with brass trimmings and the symbol of Khorne on his chest as well as skulls decorating his armour and body.
The other daemon however was not intimidated or impressed by the greater daemon's ferocity. This one was equal in size and somewhat akin to the bloodthirster in many ways, but he was not one of its ilk. He too was a large humanoid being, but displayed more bestial traits, such as his face having a somewhat canine structure with an elongated snout and jaws filled with sharp teeth. His skull also bore four horns, two smaller ones on the top pointing up and two at the sides slightly bending forward unlike the curved bull-like horns of the bloodthirster before him. His feet bore four toes, each tipped in sharp claws and from his lower waist grew a sinuous tail tipped with sharp spines at its end. His armour was also different as he wore more armour covering his thighs and and arms in the form of twisted and mutated ceramite. What once used to be armour of traitor astartes terminator was now the far more formidable red and brass wargear of a mortal, who had transcended.
For he was a daemon prince, a mortal that had gained the favour of the Ruinous Powers to the point where they ascended into daemonhood. The daemon prince snarled back at the bloodthirster as his hands tightened around the handle of his weapon, an enormous great axe seemingly fashioned from bones, brass and daemonic flesh as its head was akin to the open jaws of a dragon.
Then both combatants continued their battle, the daemon prince charging at greater daemon. The bloodthirster swung his whip at the daemon prince, who simply kept charging with his great axe raised high. That was when the whip coiled around the great axe's long handle and bloodthirster pulled. The daemon prince's charge was halted as they entered a tug of war for the axe. That was until the daemon prince let go of the weapon, letting it being dragged away and clatter onto the ground, and instead crossed the distance between him and bloodthirster to punch him straight in the face. The Khornate daemon let out a howl of rage as he instead struck with his axe. The axe clashed with the armour and caused sparks to fly between the two of them, before the daemon prince caught the bloodthirster's arm mid-swing. The two enormous fighters pushed against one another trying to get the upper hand, before the bloodthirster unleashed a breath of searing hot flames. The daemon prince though responded by headbutting his opponent, sending him staggering backwards.
Seizing the opportunity, the daemon prince grabbed his fallen weapon and charged at the bloodthirster, who snapped out of his prone state just in time to raise his axe to swing it in retaliation. Both of them hit their opponent, but where as the bloodthirster's axe had struck the daemon prince in the chest, the greataxe had bitten deep into the bloodthrister's neck and cleaved the head right off. The body staggered a little, struggling to keep standing on its unsteadily hooves for a moment before it collapsed to the side. The daemon prince let out an enraged snarl as he tore the axe out of his body and threw it on the ground, before he grabbed the severed head of his slain opponent by one of its horns.
Taking deep breaths of exertion and barely contained anger, the daemon prince of Khorne raised the head high like a grizzly trophy and let out a roar of victory, echoing through the ravine.
In the 22nd century, a certain form of video games has been dominating the market. Through the usage of certain interfaces, players were able to fully enter their game worlds through the use of neural interfaces, causing the player to lose consciousness and be fully immersed in a digital world. The technology utilizing this dive feature for almost complete immersion had taken the world by storm and it was only a matter of time until the technology progressed the point of allowing many people to play at the same time. DMMO-RPGs, short for Dive Massive Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Games, had begun to pop up left, right and centre as competition was fierce and developers experimented a lot with what sort of features would stick or not, for those who could afford such games becoming their escape from a rather bleak reality.
And it was in this experimental phase of game development radiating into all directions from typical role-playing games to larger scale strategy titles, that someone came up with a new idea. Perhaps they were digging through centuries of popular media or only found something in their attic by chance that had been owned by the great-grandparents. Whatever the reason was it was, back in 2123 that a certain company announced the very first trailer for Warhammer Ultimate coming out later that year after an undisclosed period of development.
Using the still popular and famous Warhammer IP, developers set out to create an RPG set in a game that would allow players to enjoy the grim setting on their own terms. Blending in the elements from the original fantasy setting with those of the other two was no small task though and it was ultimately achieved after years of development, careful planning and a lot of money to bring the Warhammer experience to the realm of DMMOs.
News of a Warhammer DMMO instantly caught fire by the community of loyal Warhammer fans, who despite the death of the original tabletop miniature war game in the latter half of the 21st century following the collapse of most nations in Europe, were now simply more starved for new content.
As much as the worshippers of the Blood God loathed ranged combat as a cowardly practice of the weak and honorless, there was no denying that the likes of voidships were a necessity to transport them from one battlefield to the next so that they may wage war in their god's name and spill more blood. They were like great chariots carrying them right to the next war front and often utilized boarding torpedos or ramming maneuvers alongside their firepower to destroy enemy vessels.
Warhammer Ultimate had a rather interesting system when it came to guilds. Being based on a war game with armies of miniatures fighting one another on a tabletop, large scale fights were just as normal of an occurrence as smaller ones in ordinary RPGs. For that reason, the game possessed as a core mechanic the ability to allow players to acquire NPC subordinates of their respective faction as long as certain requirements were met. As such larger battles could be between guilds who had amassed large numbers of NPCs fighting under them or multiple or between individual players who had managed to assemble troops around them in the form of warbands.
The upkeep of such groups was often quite high for an individual person and therefore required the cooperative effort of at least a handful of people. The largest of these gatherings could end up waging battles of truly gargantuan scale with some of these epic showdowns having gone down in internet history as truly biblical or cinematic events that overshadowed in-game events by magnitudes. Naturally, even the most advanced technology couldn't quite replicate the sheer scale Warhammer's universes in their entirety, but it had gotten close. There had been forces of life and death clashing in the Realm of Ghyran, Imperial Fortress worlds besieged by tendrils of a Tyranid hive fleet and hordes of warriors sworn to Chaos clashing with leagues of Lizardmen in the jungles of Lustria.
The perhaps funniest and best encounters were the ones where the factions of different universes marched against one another. Gargants of the Sons of Behemat clashing with the Necrons on one of their tomb worlds or Skaven attacking a force of the T'au Empire were only two examples of the nonsensical battles that had been fought in the past of the game's history. And to be fair, the players wouldn't have had it any other way as they enjoyed the creative freedom of picking their favorite factions, building their forces and fighting one another. It simply was fun.
As such, making a base or rather a battlefleet of ships for those fans of the Warhammer 40.000 setting was also quite fun although it took substantially longer than acquiring most basic units and still took a not insignificant amount of time to build up the resources to purchase them. The more powerful and often larger vessels were often reserved owned by larger guild and often formed the core of their fleets. There were certain exceptions though that had some other criteria to be acquired.
One of which was accompanied by a small escort of ships as its sheer size alone overshadowed the cruisers of the Extermination-class as its thrusters propelled it through the void. That something was a space hulk, an amalgamation of ships and asteroids, all fused together by the malignant powers of the Warp. More often than not, these things such places were home to unspeakable horrors and it wouldn't be wrong to assume this from this world as well since this space hulk was owned and used by a Khornate warband as its leaders' base of operations.
What used to be nothing but a twisted and randomly merged cluster of ships and debris had been reshaped into a fortress akin to the likes found in the Realm of Khorne. Brass and bronze burnt black into sharp edges like the towers of some feudal bastion gave it a rather menacing appearance as did the skull like mouths of cannon batteries lining the sides of the hulk. It somewhat resembled a ork rok or a space hulk taken over by orks to act as a mobile fortress, but that was exactly what it was. Except instead of greenskins, this abomination housed something arguably worse than war-mongering fungal creatures.
Deep within the space hulk, a singular grand command room was hidden within the center of the void fortress. Even the Khornate warriors and hereteks of the warband avoided this place as it was the personal sanctuary of its sole remaining leader figure, a daemon prince called Ka'boruth the Slaughter Lord.
The daemon prince stood before what looked like a throne made of metal and bones. He placed the bloodthirster's skull on the top of the backrest, with the daemon's horns resembling the rune of Khorne in an aesthetically pleasing way for him. Much like his patron deity, the player had built himself a throne made from bones and skulls of his defeated foes. It was equal parts roleplaying as it was his personal preferences. Horns, bones, spines and skulls as well as the volcanic desolation of Khorne's realm were things he had always liked. Taking a step back the former traitor space marine player took a good look at his finished work and nodded to himself with a feeling of satisfaction and pride welling up in him.
Most of the throne's base was composed of skulls and bones with what looked like ribs holding the individual craniums in place. On both sides, the skulls of large beasts formed the armrests, while the backrest appeared almost like it had once been a sternum of something. A pair of large spines framed the backrest and their segments were adorned with spikes of brass. Finally, at the top sat now the newest addition with the bloodthirster skull impaled at the top.
'Maybe i should have placed the skulls of bloodletters at the smaller ones.' He thought to himself for a second, before shaking his head. "No, then it would look a bit too overdesigned." He thought aloud when he turned around and looked around the empty command deck. Somehow the desolation of the place felt oppressive for a moment, dampening his earlier satisfaction with his work. "Oh right... speaking to myself again... guess that makes sense." He thought sadly as be let out a sigh.
A true daemon prince of Khorne would have been bound in chains and only unleashed upon the battlefield in a frenzy of bloodlust by a warlord using their daemonic brother as a weapon of mass destruction. Few of them could even be used in any other matter due to their transformation into one of the neverborn as even fewer retained enough self-control to be like warlords of mortal followers and daemons alike themselves.
Of course, he wasn't some bloodthirsty monster in real life. Though to call it real life was insinuating that he felt alive outside of the game, something that he had stopped doing a long time ago.
And that was what he ultimately had come for in this game: roleplaying. In other words, playing pretend. Somehow it was a rather sad development all things considered as it mean that this was the only way he could feel alive, which was soon to be ripped away from him. The era of Ka'boruth, daemon prince and leader of the Brazen Blades warband, was coming to an end and soon he'd just be Kouji Ichigawa once more, a middle-aged pencil pusher at an insurance company. Not the worst position, but he had a nagging feeling that his days there were numbered with the latest wave of layoffs of non-essential personnel having impacted the company rather negatively. He himself had been spared so far, but he didn't count on this being the case for much longer.
For now all he wanted was to escape that reality just for a bit longer and simply enjoy what little time he had left in his favorite game...
Discomfort shot through him like a lightning bolt triggered by the loud noise that the notification of his game HUD made when he was reminded that the game was going to forcefully log him out as the server maintenance and an upcoming patch would begin in just a few minutes time. Grumbling he closed the notification, but the tranquility of the moment had been utterly broken.
Sure, the game wasn't exactly shutting down forever and probably it would just be offline for a few days, while the developers ironed out out any errors that would occur with the implementation of the newest update, but it certainly did mess with a lot of people's gaming schedules. Not that he minded that last part as he was more of a lone wolf to begin with. Kouji just never really got along with other people and so his game style reflected that. At best he entered a short term alliance with other likeminded Chaos players for some raid boss or event, before he simply left them be unless they wanted trouble.
His eyes darted to the clock on the HUD reading 20:58:49. One minute left before being forcefully logged out. Kouji let out another sigh as he lamented the fact that he couldn't have done more in his short visit in the game today, but he already had come home a bit early to set up his warband's defenses in case he was getting attacked. Turns out attacking the voidborne throne of a Khornate daemon prince was apparently not really on anyone's bucket list today. In a sense he was happy not having to deal with some big void battle now and being able to just finish this piece of work and appreciate a task well done.
'Once the update launches there will likely be a few dozen crusades to be first to get any of the new content or to test out the patches.' He thought to himself as he looked over his menu for a final time. Likely there were still a few larger battles going on not far from this place and to be cut short in a moment when the servers would go into maintenance. This amused the daemon prince slightly, imagining for a brief moment how some players would lose their mind in the decisive moment of the battle only to be kicked out and the game treating it as if the battle hadn't happened yet all the losses would still be registered, giving neither of them a satisfying end.
He glanced at his clock one more. 20:59:40. 20 seconds left.
Ka'boruth moved away from his throne on the command deck and looked at his surroundings. Pillars of spines, bones and skulls framed the room despite there being no need for them. Sharp looking spikes of bronze and brass supported lamps of the same materials burning in a baleful red and cast their light over the skulls of other slain foes and weapons he had put there more as ornaments than actual part of his arsenal. Hanging from a hook above the only entryway to this place was a large banner of red cloth depicting the warband's symbol. It was rather simplistic in its design with a yellow chainsword and chainaxe crossed over one another. It could have been mistaken for a simply pirate flag if it also had a skull over the weapons or above them as a parody of a traditional jolly roger, but he had decided against that as to not emulate the World Eaters legion too much.
He had chosen to roleplay as a follower of Khorne namely because of their straight forward approach to things and aesthetic. They were the twisted followers of a grimdark war god, that instead of nobility, courage and honor embodied mindless rage and savagery. Khorne's daemons appeared to him the most classic in their design as demonic beings and he personally just liked the idea of charging headfirst into battle alongside a horde of warriors like him. It certainly was a good way to blow off steam within the boundaries of the game. It sure had taken quite some time to grow his warband from a few mortal followers of the Blood God to the force it was now and even his ascension into a daemon prince had been at the risk of him failing and instead his character being permanently deleted as to mirror the in-lore failure resulting into mutating into a chaos spawn. But here he was now.
Kouji couldn't help but smile to himself inwardly at this picture in his head as he once more felt a surge of satisfaction at what he had accomplished in this game so far and looked forward to whatever patches might add more content for him to play with in his limited free time. He barely even registered the last seconds ticking by as he thought to himself.
'Maybe, one day they'll add something akin to making a fortress in one of the worlds and create something akin to Chaos tainted territory... Nah, that would take up too much server space outside of in-game events... Would still be fun thought.' Finally the last second ticked by and Kouji's vision went dark.
And then his world exploded into unbearable, searing hot pain.
When the sun rose above the horizon, its light barely even managed to reach the fortress city of Sefron through the cover of dark clouds hanging above it and the land around it. There was no fresh breeze or birdsong as it would usually be in spring. Instead, the foul stench of dried blood and death permeated the air and the cawing of carrion birds could be heard everywhere as they either gorged themselves on the bodies of the fallen or circled overhead like black dots under the grey cloud cover. The city in the East of the Dragon Kingdom had been lucky enough to receive supplies and additional manpower in hopes of fending off the invading hordes of beastmen before they had reached the city. They were meant to be the bulwark against the forces trying to enslave them like cattle. The tide would clash against their walls with the utmost intensity for a long time and many of the brave soldiers would die. They had all known that.
But nothing could have prepared them for when the fight truly began. The first few waves of scouts had prodded the city's defenses from all sides, clearly meant to figure out how to attack the city most effectively. Not an easy task when Sefron was surrounded by open field and no way for the enemy to hide, but then the horde just kept coming. Like a tidal wave of fur, claws and fangs, the hordes of beastmen had charged at the city, seeking to overwhelm the defenders with their numbers alone. Many soldiers, mercenaries and hired adventurers lost their lives in those days and the supplies on arrows and other projectiles had dwindled significantly.
The ensuing chaos had allowed several of the beastmen to simply surround the city from afar, cutting off any supply lines to or from the city. Sefron had been cut off and now the beastmen simply waited, while continuing to harass the defenders with hit and run tactics to keep tire them out as their food and medical supplies dwindled away. Meanwhile, the beastmen had no issue to drag away the corpses of their killed allies and enemies alike to feed upon them. For 7 long days, the city of Sefron was bled and weakened. On the 8th the defenders had little hope left that they would not end up either killed or turned into livestock into one of the human farms, that some of the Dragon Kingdom's commanding officers had heard about.
The commander of Sefron's defenses, Albrecht Wyrmstone stood atop the city wall as he looked out at the expanse that surrounded Sefron. Normally, it would have been a meadow with fresh green grass growing out of the soil with the onset of spring. Now it was a desolate expanse of upturned soil and craters where magic spells had gone off. Broken and discarded weapons littered the ground as well as the bodies of the dead closest to the walls. There had been a lot more a few days ago, but the beastmen seemingly knew not to draw any closer towards the city unless they wanted to get shot by the archers and mages patrolling the walls. The ground almost appeared black from all the dried blood and the buzzing cloud of flies hovering over the ground. Albrecht had long since stopped bothering to swat the insects away whenever they landed on his bald head. Looking a bit futher away from his position, he saw multiple members of the guard, carrying the bodies of the dead up the wall, before unceremoniously dumping them over the edge, resulting in a loud thud and the occasional crack of bones or the creaking of metal when they hit one of the dead soldiers below.
'How pitiful we must look like right now.' He thought to himself as he saw how the guards looked more like beggars than esteemed warriors of the Dragon Kingdom despite their armor. The once pristine plates were now covered in scratches and dents, while their shine had dulled from both the wear and tear as well as the blood and viscera that had splattered onto them and left stains they had failed to wash off. The faces were gaunt now and their eyes sunken in from days of insomnia. Flies also buzzed around them as the men stank almost as bad as the corpses they were disposing off. Still, they had lost many of their troops and they were weakened by disease and hunger. Some may have entertained the idea of deserting, but that was hardly an option with the beastmen having set their encampments around the city. From the walls the humans could only make out the weak glow of campfires in the night, counting eight of these gatherings, as well as the occasional loud roar or bray breaking the relative silence on the more peaceful ones when those monsters had to lick their wounds. The other nights though had often ended in some attempted ambush and the loss of another soldier at least.
Albrecht knew that they were likely going to die here, but he would not back down. If the beastmen took this city, they would turn it into just another twisted parody of a farm and slaughterhouse for the human slaves they held. Human infants were apparently a delicacy for many of the demi-human races of this world. Bile shot up in his throat for a second when he remembered the reports he had read a long time ago, but he swallowed it back down, before resuming his walk alongside the wall. Looking down, he saw the arrows lodged into the gaps in the stones and the large chunks, that had been broken off the previously almost perfectly plain surface of the outer wall. There had luckily not been a breach yet, but they were only one unlucky attack away from it.
His gaze swept down into the city. The vast majority of houses owned by civilians belonged to the guards and their families. Those that were not part of it had luckily taken whatever belongings they could and fled westwards deeper into the kingdom, leaving the buildings mostly vacant. This worked just fine for the defenders to house the now injured guards of Sefron. It pained the commander to see the city in such a state, even if it was its primary function. Just months ago, this had been a lively town of peaceful people living normal lives. That was now replaced with the somber and oppressing feeling of dread and impending doom. But whatever evil might befall this city, it still stood tall and proud against the tide so that others did not have to brave it. Sefron was but one of many more cities towards the west of the kingdom and many more would have to fight the beastmen invaders, but even if their defense to the last man and woman meant that their peers had to fight a smaller and weaker onslaught in the future and were ultimately able to repel the beastmen, then it was all worth it in the end.
Not that it would be because of the Slane Theocracy's troops. The largest and strongest human nation on the continent was openly hostile towards the Dragon Kingdom for the simple fact that the Brightness Dragon Lord, great-grandfather of the current queen had founded the nation and that his bloodline was reigning here. The current invasion certainly had made many in the Dragon Kingdom a lot more hostile towards demi-humans, that rejected civilization and lived like savages, but the Slane Theocracy's disdain for anything that wasn't human or entirely human still eclipsed that justified hate by a lot. If it had been up to them, they wouldn't even have bothered to send aid to their neighboring country if it wasn't for the enormous amounts of money and goods they received for their aid, most likely with the intent to try and destroy the Dragon Kingdom in the future, that the commander was sure off. But as much as he would have liked to have such troops at his side right now, even if only to throw them at the enemy as cannon fodder, he only had the remaining guards and mercenaries to work with.
Suddenly, the single bell tower of the bastion in the middle of the city emitted a loud ringing sound that had everyone had accustomed to over the past week. Before it would have startled them and sent jolts up the defenders' bodies as they would have dropped whatever they were doing and rushed to the defenses. Now, they felt almost calm when they immediately assumed their positions. Shouts and warnings rang through the air as guards pointed beyond the walls towards the open fields around Sefron. And there Albrecht saw the enemy approaching.
The invading beastmen hordes were composed of more than just one race, yet shared the general humanoid body most intelligent beings he knew possessed. They stood upright with the features of bears, tigers, lions, wolves and other predatory mammals. Other beastmen included such races like bovine minotaurs and porcine orcs. Some wore leather armor, some had scavenged metal plates strapped to their bodies for additional protections. Some held swords, spears and shields, while others simply fought using their claws and teeth to maul and rip apart their enemies. They didn't attack in formations of any sort that Albrecht could identify. Instead, they simply charged like a pack of bloodthristy berserkers at their opponent to tear them to shreds.
Or at least, that's how it had been so far. Commander Albrecht could tell something was off the moment he saw the approaching army from the northern wall, which was the most damaged of them. Instead of the haggle of random troops of mismatched beastmen, the bald commander's brown eyes looked at a shield wall of minotaurs decked out in armor with the smaller and more lightly armored beastmen behind them with bows and stolen crossbows. Shouts reached his ears from the opposite side of the city and from afar he could see the guards run to their stations there, but more importantly another force of beastmen approaching from that flank as well. He was about to curse his luck, before the sound of a horn being blown swept from the east where a third force approached. Unlike the other two, this one came with ladders, clearly intending to climb the walls and attack the city while the smaller skirmishing forces would trap them in a pincer attack. Cold sweat ran down Albrecht's back when he realized the hopelessness of their situation for a second before gritting his teeth hard enough for the pressure to send a jolt of pain through his jaw.
"Defenders of Sefron!" Albrecht's voice came out like a thunderous declaration of war with the conviction of a true believer. Several of the soldiers stopped and turned to him, looking rather shocked at him as they had always known the commander to be a stoic man of few words. He never had been one for speeches, yet all in earshot of their leader looked at him when he spoke almost like a preacher. "The savages are upon us! Arm yourselves and stand fast! Even if we die today, we will make them pay dearly for every bit of ground of our city! Let's show these beasts the fury of the Dragon Kingdom and send them back screaming into the hell from whence they came!" A chorus of battlecries echoed across the ranks of the soldiers around him with their faces now showing grim determination to not go down without a fight. The effects were instantly as the defenders moved quickly to their positions.
While the commander was directing the individual groups to the fronts in the North, South and East of Sefron, the beastmen continued their advance with the unmistakable precision of militaristic organisation. They advanced as one, pulling the noose tighter around the city, but not attacking just yet. Still the movement on top of the walls did create a reaction from the attackers as the sounds they made grew louder and more agitated at the human forces refusing to simply yield under the superior numbers or to freeze in fear and panic. Shortly after, another loud horn was blown somewhere in the eastern force and with that all hell broke loose. A cacophony of angry roars, screeches and brays escaped the beastmen's throats as they began their siege.
Hundreds, if not thousands of individual things happened all at once in the ensuing chaos of warfare. The heavily armored minotaurs advanced slowly while faster and more nimble beastmen moved around them as to not knock them or the archers they were protecting over, while they themselves rushed at the city walls to draw the attention of the defenders. Human archers and casters let loose a hailstorm of deadly projectiles at the savage demi-humans, killing dozens of them with the first salvo. But the onslaught was one of hundreds and thousands. Soon enough, the walls were battered against by blades, horns and claws once again. The more lithe and nimble among the beastmen's numbers tried to scale the wall and attack the archers, but they either were shot down, cut down or impaled on spears. That didn't mean though that the beastmen didn't also get a few kills in early on as well. An arrow shot through a soldier's head, sending the dead body tumbling over the edge where the corpse was simply crushed and trampled on by the attackers just like the many remaining corpses as well.
The walls of the city shook slightly when the stronger types of the beastmen hammered against the already weakened northern wall with large metal maces and hammers. The humans reacted immediately by opening fire on the living siege weapons, killing a couple by hitting them through the gaps in their armor, though most of them were merely enraged even more than before and resumed their attack with newfound ferocity. Siege ladders were braced against the eastern wall and hacked apart by the guards atop them. Some beastmen managed to leap over before the ladder could fall and viciously mauled the closest guard apart, before they themselves were impaled by spears and swords, sending their mutilated corpses over the walls.
Deep crimson blood flowed in small rivers and streams over the stones of the walls, forming miniature waterfalls, that all flowed back into the blood-drenched soil and the stacks of corpses at the walls' base. The iron-rich scent kicked the beastmen even more into a frenzy and even the humans in some primal way seemed more invigorated in their desire to fight as the air seemingly chocked on it. Commander Albrecht drove his sword through the skull of some strange humanoid weasel-like beastmen, throwing it off.
"Keep going, men! Drive them back!" He shouted, but his voice was lost in the sounds of butchery and slaughter engulfing the city.
Perhaps it had been nothing more than an unlucky coincidence that things had turned out this way. Had the beastmen taken a day to rest and not attack for once and spill blood, perhaps none of it would have come to pass. The amount of time the city had been under siege, the number and positioning of the beastmen's encampments forming a crude misshapen symbol with the city in the middle and the truly tremendous amounts of brutality and bloodshed the land had experienced within that time all could have been entirely meaningless.
But in a single instance, they were not.
All of the sudden, the ground shook beneath everyone's feet. Due to all the fighting, the forces of the Dragon Kingdom and the beastmen didn't notice it at first, but with each passing second the tremors grew stronger from barely notable vibrations of the soil and stone under their feet to violent movements that caused multiple of the combatants to instantly loose their footing and fall either to the ground or off of the walls. The structures groaned and rumbled under the strain as spiderwebs of cracks began to form on the stone walls.
"What in the name of all that is holy is going on?" Someone shouted, while several buildings within the city collapsed in on themselves, leaving nothing but large billowing clouds of dust and the abruptly cut of screams of people buried under the debris. The beastmen didn't have it any better as the ground beneath them began to sag abruptly. Small fissures opened up on the ground and spew out a mixture of soil and blood, spraying the beastmen with the stinking mud and blinding some of them temporarily, until they notice that the bloody sludge was slowly rising and oozing out like blood from an open cut. Unnerved by this, the beastmen quickly retreated away from where the ground had begun to sink lower and lower, slowly forming a large shallow pool of deep crimson liquid smelling of copper and iron. Not all of them did so though as the ones that had been hit by the fountains of blood still erupting from the ground like miniature geysers suddenly let out angry howls of rage, before they began to attack whatever was closest to them.
Suddenly, the afflicted beastmen turned on their allies, using their claws, teeth and weapons to tear apart their fellow beastman or attempted to scale the walls in a mad rage, while frothing bloody foam from their mouths. Even as they were impaled on spears to try and fend them off, the beastmen continued to struggle and lash out, only stopping when fatal injuries were dealt to them, but even with their faces impaled, their bloodshot eyes lingered on the defenders with unbridled hatred before they crashed down onto the ground. The beastmen cut down their crazed former allied and the pool of blood continued to grow larger and deeper. Sections of the outer wall began to sag down and the people atop that section had to stumble away to not be pulled down into the nightmarish pool below, moments before it suddenly burst into hot flames. The corpses of the dead and the beastmen standing in the pool were burnt alive as they all let out a cacophony of screams.
Albrecht looked with horror as he held onto the wall to not lose his balance when he realized that they were not crying out in pain. There was only hatred and rage in those inhuman voices. And then a shape began to rise up from the flames. It could have been mistaken for smoke rising from the flames for a moment, but instead of fading away and disappating like smoke would, it morphed into a solid form. As the figure rose higher and higher to the point it was essentially almost as tall as Sefron's walls. A pair of large leathery wings extended from the back and spread out while a bestial face took shape in an elongated snout. Lips pulled back to reveal sharp fangs and red skin became visible through the cover of smoke.
Instantly, all who bore witness to this unholy spectacle stopped their fighting for a moment as the beast opened its blood red eyes for the first time and raised its head higher to take in the first breath. Lips parted over the almost canine-looking snout, revealing long and sharp fangs with a snarl when it took its first deep breath in this reality. And even so, Albrecht and certainly any other being that bore witness to this being emerging from the carnage felt a wave of anger and hate emitted from it the same way one felt a gust of hot wind on a summer day. Under any other circumstance, the miraculous stopping of the fighting on that front would have had something poetic perhaps. But the cold and harsh truth was that every single combatant was frozen in a deep, primordial fear when the creature glared at its surroundings with nothing but contempt.
"D-Demon..."
"It's a demon! Run!"
"Oh heavens..."
Albrecht heard several of the guards on the stretch of wall he was on mutter or even start running, while the shouts and the sounds of fighting and dying from the other walls seemed incredibly distant in that moment. His own eyes were now fixated on the pair of axes the beast held in its hands, before it let out an ear-shattering roar and moved with a speed no creature that size had any right to. In an instant, the beast must have taken two or three strides and swung its deadly weapons around at the force of beastmen. Blood and viscera flew through the air like toys, while the beastmen howled and brayed in fear, trying to flee only to bump into their own ranks. This seemed to only further enrage the demon as its snarl became louder and proceeded to go after the fleeing beastmen as if it was insulted by their cowardice.
The defenders on Sefron's walls still stood there frozen in shock as they watched the demon spread his large chiropteran wings and launch its body into the air, only to bring it down onto the fleeing beastmen. Arrows and bolts flew through the air and harmlessly bounced off the red and burnt brass armor of the being from a detachment of the eastern front, having noticed their brethren running towards them in a panic. And yet the demon only grew more enraged as the two weapons in its hands emitted a loud thundering noise and Albrecht swore he could see the ridges of the serrated blades move before they reduced another dozen beastmen into a squall of gore and blood.
Another rumble of the slowly collapsing walls shook Albrecht out of his thoughts when he began to shout orders at his troops to try and save as many as possible, sometimes shaking or slapping some of the soldiers out of their stupor. The situation had spiraled completely out of control. Fiends rising from the demon world to slaughter mortals and steal their souls into their twisted underworld were nothing more than folktales and stories to scare children. And yet, they had all witnessed something that almost matched those tales to the letter. But nothing would come off of it, if they didn't somehow get the word out and warn the Dragon Queen Draudillon. They had to inform the capital about this as soon as possible. That was the only thought on the commander's mind when the sudden angry roar of the demon caused him to look back to see that its head had snapped towards the eastern wall of Sefron or more specifically at the humans on top of it shooting with arrows and crossbows at the creature.
"Stop, you fools! You'll get us all-" He didn't get to say anything more when the red-skinned demon swung its terrifying weapon at the top of the walls in a wide arm. Instantly, the defenders attacking it were either turned to splatters of gore or sent flying to their death, while stone was pulverized and sent flying as deadly projectiles into the city, destroying some of the few houses that still stood following the fiend's arrival. Tremors ran through the wall and two more soldiers standing elsewhere fell over to their deaths, while the rest clung to the stones as to not be pushed off their feet. For a long moment, the commander simply stared at the stretch where his subordinates had stood a moment ago, unable to tear his eyes away from the carnage the demon had wrought. Then its horned head snapped back towards the east where the beastmen's main force was now retreating as was the force that had come from the south of the city. With a roar, the winged terror took flight once more and gave chase, ignoring the shellshocked defenders of the Dragon Kingdom entirely.
Even long after the demon and the beastmen had disappeared from the sight of the city, the humans still heard the horrid sounds of the battle raging on. Despite the knowledge that the beastmen had come to wipe them all out, none of them could feel any joy at the fate that had befallen their foes at all.
The city of Sefron still stood, but ultimately the defenders would have to give it up and retreat further westwards as they no longer had the manpower and resources to maintain it. They all knew that the events of this day would likely go down as a great loss for the Dragon Kingdom despite their survival. But perhaps having survived such a horror was even worse than falling in combat in the defense of their kingdom and people. That was what Commander Albrecht thought in that moment as he gazed back towards the pool of blood and charred corpses from which the fiend had emerged.
Kouji came to be once more with an aching feeling coursing through his body as if he had just taken a beating in some fight. Something rather paradoxical since he hadn't thrown hands with anyone since his days in kindergarten. Yet it was the closest thing he could liken the sensation to coupled with the exhaustion one would get if they ran late for work and desperately tried to still get there on time. His lungs burned. His skin burned. His eyes, his wings, his tail. Everything hurt or stung in some minor way.
"What... in the world-?!" He gasped when clarity finally returned to him and he almost wished it had not. The first thing he took in was a grizzly sight before him. Around him stretched a massive field of mutilated corpses. Blood stained almost every surface around him with matted fur and armor dyed crimson and black. The remains of tents and some other structures, now reduced to debris littered the ground further away and fires burned in various places. He took a step back as his hands let go of what he was holding, only to recoil at the sound of metal hitting the ground and bones to crack under his feet. Worse than that was the feeling shooting up his leg as he glanced down and saw the misshapen and monstrous limbs that he had seen so many times in Warhammer Ultimate. That also made him away of the strange object in his vision that was his new canine-snout and the red skin on his mutated ceramite armor. Laying on the ground were the two chainaxes he used to wield, now stuck in mounds of corpses.
The horror in his mind made him hyperventilate and take another step back, raising his hands to his eye levels when he finally noted that his whole body wasn't just red from the color of his skin, but also glistening with fresh bloody staining his whole body. Its coppery scent clung to his nostrils and he felt a horrible feeling of dread creep up his shaking body. He staggered backwards, almost stepping on his spiked tail in the process. His wings spread out instinctively, startling the player even more as he whirled around to try and look around himself. But in all directions he saw nothing but a blood soaked field of corpses.
When realization finally hit him, the Khornate daemon prince Ka'boruth did the only thing he could think of in that moment. The howl of anger and agony that tore through his daemonic throat echoed out into the dead expanse around him like the haunting wail of a banshee, before fading away.