Chapter 123: Great Work

It actually did not surprise many people that the Star-Bearer had begun their campaign against the Norsca Peninsula.

Rather, it would have been unimaginable for the Star-Bearer to have used ultra-long-range island-hopping tactics at the start, bypassing Elf colonies to head straight for Antarctica. After all, it felt like dealing with the Norsca Peninsula was a better option; jumping directly to Antarctica really felt like an eye-opener for all the people of the world.

Even now, as they begin to manage the Norsca Peninsula, many feel that it might be a little too late, as looking at the current Norsca Peninsula, many places have actually already been encroached upon by various forces.

After all, the whole world is not stupid; everyone has seen the strength of the Star-Bearer.

They had a major clash with the Knight of the Kingdom, turned around and slaughtered the Sea Elves, then negotiated with two Elves to build the Golden Land, and used astronomical wealth to begin Chaos crusades all over the world. And because they have been targeting Chaos without any other measures, the Star-Bearer's reputation is very good.

Even the Dark Elves know that Chaos is nothing good; everyone is very clear on this point. However, the bizarre nature of Chaos, along with the memes they have planted in everyone's hearts, means that wars against Chaos always result in some oversights.

But the Star-Bearer's combat is simple and straightforward; the Star-Bearer only needs to be soulless or have been occupied by other powers long ago, so they are not afraid of Chaos corruption.

It cannot be said that the Star-Bearer's front line is rising steadily, but rather that they are conquering cities and seizing territory.

I do not know how many Chaos Demons and terrifying monsters have fallen under the Star-Bearer's swords. The great changes in productivity brought about by these products of the industrial age allow even Star-Bearer recruits to obtain a full set of specialized combat equipment, while simultaneously not bringing any gains to Chaos.

No Chaos Demon or monster can be compatible with the abilities of other evil gods; unless it is an option decided upon by several evil gods together, it is absolutely impossible for such a thing to happen.

And Li Ang would certainly not allow such a thing to appear, so naturally, there would not be any compatible individuals.

For the countries of the world, the sudden emergence of such a powerful faction does not seem like a good thing. But given that the Star-Bearer's actions have always been either killing Chaos, catching Undead and swamp monsters, or running to Antarctica to give the demons a hard time, they are basically an Order Faction.

So although everyone says nothing, they just watch. Then they secretly take some small villages or outposts in the south of the Norsca Peninsula to conduct monitoring and observation.

It is just that these facilities soon slipped out of their control and even joined the Star-Bearer's sphere.

No one knows how the Star-Bearer's spy system operates. They always seem to be able to capture traitors at an astonishing speed and then find valuable information from them. This makes all countries almost completely in the dark regarding the Star-Bearer's intelligence, having no idea what is happening over there.

Even Bretonnia and the Empire, which are also of the Order Faction, have started to grumble, and the Norscans on the Norsca Peninsula have reached a state of giving up; anyway, I don't know anything, so I'll just pretend it doesn't exist.

The Norscans on the west coast surrendered to the Star-Bearer almost immediately, while the Norscan communities on the north coast were basically scraped clean by Wufuruike and had long since surrendered to the Star-Bearer. Only the southern Norscans facing the Empire and Bretonnia, and the northern Norscans in a standoff with Kislev, are still unclear about what is going on. In their perception, it is as if a giant light bulb lit up in the sky, and then everyone disappeared.

At first, these Chaos believers even thought it was very likely that those sneaky Underground Kingdoms were behind it, but after finding a few former Skaven tunnels, they discovered that these sensitive-nosed guys had long since fled to who knows where, leaving only a batch of the old, weak, sick, and disabled as cover.

These Skaven had long since sealed their tunnels, using a deeper network of burrows to lurk inside the planet, determined not to come out and not wanting to see that sun on the ocean.

This situation made the other Norscans feel confused and even a little afraid.

In the era they lived in, it was always the Norscans who robbed others; their customs were constant fighting, eventually dueling to determine the strongest Norscan chieftain, and then heading to the Empire to launch wars and robberies. But now, why is someone interested in their own poor mountains and bad waters? And it is not just the Star-Bearer; on the northern coast of the Norsca Peninsula, after the Star-Bearer's colonial fleet left, what followed were not Chaos warlords, but batches of Undead players singing sea shanties.

These forces that expanded within Hope City could no longer be accommodated by Hope City due to the growth in the number of players.

After all, when Hope City was built, they only considered whether they could survive; there was no detailed plan for larger-scale city-state construction. And because this wretched place was also too easy to attack, the players discussed it with the Star-Bearer and decided to occupy the currently uninhabited northern end of the Norsca Peninsula.

But this "uninhabited" is from the Star-Bearer's perspective. If you, the Star-Bearer, come over to catch people, then of course it is uninhabited. Who would dare to oppose you? Once you walk this way, there is definitely not a living person left in the whole village. Everyone is hiding.

But what is the deal with you players coming here? We have lived in this place for generations; how did it become yours in the blink of an eye? So what if we believe in the Chaos Gods? Do we deserve to die for believing in Chaos? Holding such simple-minded thoughts, the north of the Norsca Peninsula and the players had a violent conflict.

The southern region had a violent conflict with the armies sent by the Empire and Bretonnia, who intended to pick the peaches and extort them. The southern Norscan ports face the harbors of the Empire and Bretonnia; the two countries can accept the occupation of the Norscans, but they absolutely cannot accept a super team like the Star-Bearer lighting a lighthouse.

Although one team after another disappeared, and a large number of people inexplicably joined the Star-Bearer, this only made the Empire and Bretonnia more determined in their confidence.

A group of Witch Hunters and Baptized Knights joined this expedition, determined to have the coastline controlled by their own people.

And the final result was that before the Star-Bearer even made a move, the entire Norsca Peninsula had turned into a mess.

Such a situation is actually relatively familiar to the Norscans.

Since it is fighting either way, then don't worry about the reasons; let's just fight. As long as they fight, then the problem can always be solved.

"—I don't know what happened, but I know that this place will definitely be flowing with countless blood recently."

The chieftain of the Haidelin tribe looked at the blood on his axe and grinned.

"The great God Eagle will like the gift of blood. Our team will also surely become the leader of all Norscans; like those great people before us, we will definitely be able to become God-Chosen."

Looking at the battle brothers around him whose bodies had already mutated, the smile on the chieftain's face became even more obvious.

Although he did not know what had happened, recently, the blessings of the Chaos Gods had clearly increased. More and more people began to receive the goodwill of the dark gods, who bestowed upon the Norscan warriors infinite power, as well as unpredictable limbs and bodies, allowing them to kill enemies in various ways.

Although he himself believes in the god of war, the God Eagle in Norscan mythology, he does not really want to manage what others believe in. After all, such things are really too troublesome; for him, if it can be solved with blood, then it is not a problem.

In recent times, those southerners don't know what kind of madness they have, insisting on rushing over to fight the Norscans to the death. Even braving the blizzard to rush over, such senseless behavior naturally earned the mockery of the gods.

He simply killed several Witch Hunters who were said to have some fame on the battlefield, and then beheaded some flashy-looking Knights to show the public.

The faces under those helmets were not as exquisite and noble as they advertised, and they would die if killed.

Holding the head just chopped off on the battlefield, the chieftain stood among countless corpses and let out a terrifying roar at the sky and at the Chaos Warriors who were gnawing on the enemy's corpses on the battlefield and had gone completely mad, a roar that might cause ordinary people to fall into Chaos upon hearing it.

"Look! My compatriots! These cowards are the trash that occupied those beautiful lands! They don't have the souls to carry that fertile soil! They are cowards! They are the weak!" "The weak are not qualified to live in this world! Their blood will all be dedicated to the Blood God!"

"We killed the cans of Bretonnia, we killed those fanatics of the Empire, we will go to the east of the Norsca Peninsula, gather our most bloodthirsty allies, let us break through the Frost Palace of Kislev together, let us march directly to the Empire from the coastline! Let us go for greater wealth!"

"ROAR!!!!!"

Monsters born from Chaos and flesh roared on the battlefield, and countless freaks that had been twisted out of human shape, and were not even human anymore, could only be called Chaos Spawn, flapped their tentacles.

These Norscan warbands had completely entered the abyss; they had abandoned their background as humans. These monsters favored by Chaos would not come back to life as humans even after dying in the real world. These things were already no different from demons.

But these monsters gnawing on the flesh of the losers were very happy; that blood was left for the God Eagle Blood God, those screams and wails were for the Lord of Pleasure, and the stupidity of these people was definitely the strategy of the God Eagle. And the corpses and internal organs of these people would not be wasted; they would be canned and ground by specialized Plague Doctors, and finally, under the blessing of the God of Life, obtain a great plague.

A war, dedicated to four gods, it is really worth it! For Chaos, for the Norscans, what could be more convincing than this? Look at the leather armor burning with hellfire on his body, look at the giant axe with a metallic color and serrated edges in his hand, and the large leather cloak enchanted by Magic on his body. This heavy metal attire of his was all great power born under the blessing of the gods; mortals would be terrified even before they could get close.

In front of the merciful dark gods, what Star-Bearer, what Chaos killer, are all just chickens and dogs, not worth mentioning! "Coordinate 855.224, three rounds of saturation shelling."

"What?"

Listening to the voice interpreted by the Chaos Gods that suddenly came to his ears, this Chaos Chosen warrior waving the giant axe in his hand looked toward the coastline with some surprise.

On the pitch-black, fog-filled ocean, there was no shadow that could be called a ship. But after that voice, at the end of the horizon, three rounds of light suddenly lit up. Countless light spots flew from the sky and projected toward this side at an extremely fast speed.

There was no sound, no thunderous artillery fire; there was only countless light and shadow falling rapidly from the sky.

And when the white light was almost close at hand, the dull sound wave roared over from the edge of the coastline, and together with the shrill scream of the warheads tearing through the air, it made him realize instantly what was happening.

It was shelling, and it was ultra-high-speed, ultra-long-range shelling. But before the Chaos warrior could turn his head and shout to get down, the whistling white light fell to the ground instantly. The eyes blessed by the gods even allowed the Chaos warrior to clearly see the hundreds of thousands of inscriptions engraved on the falling warheads.

Those dense characters and engraved marks were full of the symbols of a certain Chaos power, as well as the sentences he cursed.

"You are just a bunch of trash! Subspace, all trash!"

"You should submit to me!"

"The will of this world will only be left with me; there will be no other will!"

"I am the true only one, and also the true eternal! You will all bow at my feet!"

"I command all power of psionics and the Chaos Gods to cease here!"

Upon seeing the last line of the inscription on the shell, that intense will and the terrifying Brand in the Subspace erupted instantly. The Chaos Warrior did not even have time to let out a scream before formless flames spread from within the Subspace in the blink of an eye, beginning to consume his mutated body and limbs.

Platinum flames, golden destruction began to spread; these things, terrifying beyond measure, accompanied the continuous artillery fire as they covered every corner of the battlefield.

These golden flames seemed to use the existence of each individual as a base point; those Chaos Warriors, Chaos Spawn, and those blessed monsters all wailed amidst the three rounds of shelling, their massive bodies becoming the very source of their destruction as countless flames burst forth from within them.

The food for these things is Chaos magic itself. It was born specifically to gnaw upon these god-given things. For all sentient beings, the most intense terror is the terror of the unknown, and the most intense fear is the fear of self-modification. And unsurprisingly, this platinum flame occupies both. Once calcined by this flame, it is a brand-new individual.

After the shelling, there was no smoke or craters exploding everywhere on the battlefield. After the platinum flames violently burned the Chaos Demons to death, they did not remain on the battlefield for long.

The ships in the distance seemed very certain of this, merely dropping anchor in the distance and then letting a few landing craft come up to mark and record.

These Elves wore white work uniforms, each holding weapons and recording devices, silently reciting some knowledge while stiffly and mechanically carrying out cleanup and recording work on the coast.

"This is the Norsca Southern Coast Patrol. We have found the missing 3rd Army 4th Company of the Empire. They encountered a marked Chaos Apostle and put up a desperate struggle, ultimately being wiped out. We were unable to arrive in time and only saw these things on the ground in the end... Eh? Can I not say it like that?"

The female Elf responsible for recording froze, looking at the records on the document, and tentatively asked the voice that always existed in her mind: "But these things are objective facts, my lord, why can we not record the real data?"

"Because the Empire is hard to understand... But if we do that, aren't we lying? Saying things like the Empire refused our request for aid, thinking they could handle these enemies themselves, only to be wiped out. The truth of the matter is not like that at all; we arrived late."

"The Empire side thinks we might have done it on purpose, so is it better to just say it like that? But if we do that, won't the Empire think we did it on purpose even more? That wouldn't be good for the future of the Star-Bearer, would it?"

"Manufacturing a pretext for war? Can we occupy it in the name of being humiliated? What are you talking about?"

Listening somewhat uncomprehendingly to the lesson given by the voice in her mind, the female Elf recorded various information in a daze. Meanwhile, other Elves were simultaneously receiving various education and guidance, handling everything on the coastline somewhat clumsily.

These Elves, who are confirmed to be serving in the Star-Bearer ranks, are Elves from the Cloning Vats. They will serve as recruits around the coastline. This includes but is not limited to helping those reckless Empire armies and Bretonnia armies. But when encountering some risks and accidents, they can also choose their own choices.

However, for these armies that had already failed, these Star-Bearers chose to describe their own army's and the opponent's actions in a way that sounded rather intentional.

As for why, the Star-Bearers do not know. At least these young Star-Bearers do not understand.

They only know to keep installing those Psionic Spires and then transmit these records to the rear. This is their job, and also their daily routine.

In this great work of map-coloring, such a part must exist.

(End of this chapter)