Chapter 130: Settling Accounts

Sinuoli first used hot water to wash away the blood and fatigue from his body, then used the Rune telegraph on his hand to send a long-short-long sequence to Lord Borok, who was far away in Karak-Norn, to inform him of the successful relief of the siege.

When he finished all this and briefly maintained his armor and weapons, he lay on the bed to rest his mind. But he did not know that the great battle that had just occurred had also caused ripples in the Warp.

In that Xuwang Baolei, which spat out eerie blue flames, the God of Ravens sat behind the Well of Eternity; it was said that the gloomy bottom of that well held the answers to all questions.

The Great Deceiver and God of Magic stared at the surface of the water in the well countless times amidst twisted time and space, concentrating on finding clues that would allow Him to implement that unspeakable plan.

Suddenly, He noticed a ripple in the Well of Eternity. "Oh? That interesting little Dwarf!" the God of Magic Birds muttered to Himself after studying it for a moment.

"My loyal servant, come to My side!" He said to the surrounding void without beginning or end.

As soon as the words fell, a twisted portal opened in the void. Amidst blue and pink halos, a blue bird-like Daemon stepped out; he was a huge creature covered in feathers, with a carrion bird's skull perched on a precarious, drooping neck.

This was a Lord of Change, a Greater Daemon of Tzeentch. In principle, a Lord of Change did not consider it necessary to maintain consistency in his color, appearance, or even shape, but out of respect for the god they served, they habitually appeared before others in this guise.

"My God, Zhaluoke, the Fate Twister, has come at your summons. Is there anything I can do for you?" The Lord of Change bowed and performed a salute.

When he lowered his head, a pure red feather on his back was revealed, and as his wings fluttered, four feathers resembling peacock tail feathers with eye-like patterns were revealed on each of his left and right wings.

He held a staff that appeared to be liquid mercury and a dagger; the top of the staff was a large gold watch with countless twisted hands, and the shape of the dagger was like an enlarged version of a hand.

Lords of Change are temperamental and skilled in calculation. Hidden beneath their gaze are strange and fearsome thoughts and profound wisdom, but they are indifferent to reality, as if everything were their fantasy.

Lords of Change are like a group of children playing with a giant anthill, poking the residents inside with small sticks and then mocking their strange and feeble Resistance.

To them, there is nothing more fun than destroying a world and rebuilding it, changing the trajectory of a life or history itself, or letting some people's hopes fall while letting others ascend to supreme power.

"I previously discovered an interesting little fellow in that world where the losers of the War in the Heavens are hiding." Tzeentch's voice sounded slowly.

"Kill him?" Zhaluoke made a throat-slitting gesture.

"No, not for now! Keep an eye on him for Me. Just now, this kid killed a guy favored by those crazy, chaotic green things, triggering a ripple in fate."

Tzeentch's voice echoed in the space, and He patiently explained to His subordinate. Zhaluoke, the Fate Twister—from his title to his feathers mixed with gold and exotic colors—was enough to show the extraordinariness of this Greater Daemon.

Tzeentch's sacred number is nine, and the Lords of Change are also divided into nine ranks, each with great titles. However, unlike Khorne or Slaanesh, because Tzeentch is fickle, even the most favored Greater Daemon may fall out of favor in the blink of an eye.

Undoubtedly, Tzeentch's ranking criteria are inexplicable, and even to his smartest servants, they often appear groundless. For now, Zhaluoke is deeply favored by the Chaos God.

"Report any new interesting changes to Me in time!"

"As you wish, the all-knowing and all-powerful Tzeentch!"

Zhaluoke gently flapped his wings and flew out of Xuwang Baolei; he would descend to the Mortal World to carry out his master's mission. Of course, Sinuoli knew nothing of this.

By twilight, Sinuoli was awakened once again by a knock on the door; he straightened his clothes while tugging at his beard.

The slight pain from his chin told him that all of this was real; he had truly killed Skarsnik, the future warlord of Eight Peaks.

With the joy of victory, Sinuoli opened the door, and guided by two local Dwarfs, he headed once again to the fortress hall from before.

After an afternoon, Sinuoli found that the hall had been cleaned and tidied, with a new festive atmosphere added. Clearly, for this fortress that had just experienced two sieges and the death of the old lord, the recent victory was something well worth celebrating.

As Sinuoli walked toward the platform, he waved to his clansmen along the way; he noticed that the Knights of Bretonnia and several leading Humans from the caravan had also been invited, and these Humans sat at two tables by themselves.

This indicated that as a fortress in the Grey Mountains, Karak-Azgalaz was also superior to the Dwarf cities of the World's Edge Mountains in terms of openness.

"Fellow clansmen and Human friends! Let us raise our glasses together and celebrate today's victory!" The young Lord Sawake was quite emotional; this could be said to be the first praiseworthy happy event since he took office.

Fearless Fort was not a very large Dwarf fortress, and the lord here was not easy to be. Due to the rising power of Chaos, more and more Dwarfs living outside the Qunshan or in small settlements had smelled an ominous scent.

Those among them with strong decisiveness took the initiative to abandon their original foundations and returned to the Qunshan with their families for their own safety. Others had their places of residence disturbed or even directly captured and were forced to return to take refuge.

For large, resource-rich fortresses like Everpeak and Haojiaobao, the influx of such outside Dwarfs brought more labor and accelerated their own development.

But for small fortresses already trapped by a lack of resources, it brought more pressure. The foundation of the Dwarf race is mining and forging, but undoubtedly, the content of underground mineral deposits is limited.

As for the production of handicrafts, in a situation where the consumption capacity of surrounding order races does not grow significantly, an increase in practitioners will only bring more competition.

Wanting to further develop agriculture, the land in the Grey Mountains is barren, the land available for cultivation is limited and has basically been exhausted, and the newly arrived outside Dwarfs even brought about a shortage of food.

Sinuoli's feeling at noon that the local beer tasted poor was also affected by this. Original wort concentration is an indicator that affects the nutrition and taste of beer, which is closely related to the amount of malt added during brewing.

How could the Dwarfs of Fearless Fort, already affected by food shortages, have sufficient malt when brewing? Sinuoli analyzed a lot through a simple glass of wine and his observations and understanding along the way.

Thanks to Lenin Guiding the Direction for the tip, tianby, and Melbourne Knight for the monthly ticket.