NOVEL NEXT Chapter 156: Epilogue Two: Mother and Son
Erda smiled mirthlessly. 'So like all your kind – desires frustrated, and then quickly to the threats.' She placed her hands together, raising them up as if in prayer. The golden glow within the room intensified, and a strange harmonic began to thrum across the earth floor. 'But you should not have come here alone, monster.'
By Erda, Mother of Primarchs confronting Erebus
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A golden meteor flew through above the old world. At first, the mysterious light was just a dim light mixed among the stars but as time passed, the light gradually grew everynight to the point everyone native to the planet in question began to panic.
Many of the natives began to believe that it is the sign of the upcoming apocalypse, some believe it is the sign of hope as meteor emits golden light as well as meteor only have one string of tail, not two. On the other hand, few individuals who possess a great power and sight beyond common fear saw what the meteor truly was. A new contender for the position of ultimate power.
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Altdorf, Capital City of the Empire.
College of Magic
"By the Sigmar. The golden meteor could be the sign of the great omen but I can't determine if it is good or evil." An ancient wizard spoke in great concern as if he was talking to himself but in truth, he was surrounded by a dozen wizards of different orders of magic. The gathering of the wisest and most experienced wizards frowned as they couldn't determine the identity of the golden meteor or meaning behind the light.
"So we are still undecided as to what that light means. Without our answer, the people of the Empire are panicking and resorting to mass gathering to the cult of Sigmar. No one is working and there is chaos in the cities everywhere." One of the wizards in green robe reminds everyone what was on a stake at this moment. The Jade Wizard spoke true as commoners are panicking in fear which results in massive disruption of daily life and crime rate rises to new levels. On the other hand, nobles of all levels did what they are good at, petty revenge against each other to which wizards start to believe if nobles possess a certain book of grudge of their own.
"I believe that golden light isn't a menace to us but rather a hope of the Empire. I'm more concerned about the trajectory of the meteor as it is still coming towards our way and will be here around one month." Wizard in blue robe said as his deep understanding of the Lore of the Heavens calculated the heading of the meteor. After multiple consideration and calculation, the Astromancers under the leadership of the Celestial Order came to the conclusion that the Golden Meteor will hit the Known World, somewhere near the western border of the Empire.
"I will report this matter to the Emperor and have him decide. At this moment I will provide all the evidence that meteor is a good omen and advise the Emperor to organise an army to retrieve the meteor when it arrives. Let us all hope that the Cult of Sigmar doesn't cause another uproar…" The headmaster of the College of Magic couldn't finish his sentence as the wizard messenger burst through the office door with great urgency.
"I'm sorry for interrupting, but I have an urgent message from the royal palace. The Ostland is currently fighting the raiders of the North and because of this news the Cult of Sigmar assembled the army of believers of common background to go on crusade towards the northern legion." The messenger said in a panting voice and handed over the scroll with more detailed news. If this was true, then the Empire would have to step in by assembling the army of their own to provide support to the Cult of Sigmar. The reason isn't because the religion of Sigmar is the main religion of the Empire or duty to assist the cult members during the need but to make sure those damn peasants following the cult doesn't end up all dying.
"Those damn zealots and simple minded fools." The headmaster of the College of Magic shouted in anger as he knew the turmoil that could come after the action made by the cultists. Meanwhile, Church of the Sigmar and their priests gather the new recruits in the commoner district while praising the words of the Sigmar and how the Golden Light in heaven will guide their way to the northern legion.
"Praise the Sigmar! For we are the righteous and justice of his warhammer!" The priest shouted as he raised his own warhammer up towards the golden meteor. The men and women of all ages prey on their knees as if their words will reach the golden light shining ever bright.
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Ulthuan, Ten Kingdoms of the High Elves
Lothern, the Greatest City of the Ulthuan,
The twin High Elves met in a private room to discuss the dire news happening around the world. The Old World is in chaos as usual as the presence of the golden light in the night sky begins to shift the order of powers in every faction.
According to the spies and network of intelligence gathered all around the world provided the latest information related to the effect from the golden meteor that is heading to the Known World. And the news isn't good at all.
The northern tribes of savage men began to move in massive scale towards the south to raid in large scale never seen before. The Empire and Bretonnia are doing their best to counter the raiders but barely holding their defence against the pawns of Chaos.
While Empire and Bretonnia are fighting back the raiders, the Kislev are fidgeting their own war against Chaos as few of the Chaos Warbands make their move. Apparently, the sight of the golden light in the night sky gave them a signal of sorts to push their armies down south, towards the Ostermark as if they received some kind of message from their dark master. It is unknown whether or not one or all gods of Chaos decided to act but one thing was clear, the Chaos armies are doing everything they can to reach an unknown destination even if it leads them to death.
As for the dwarfs, they are as simple as they come. Fortifying their underground fortress and fighting their own battle against Greenskins and Chaos remnants after losing the battle. With a stone like mindset and willing to fight alone in the battle, the dwarfs of the Old World will do their own things until it is too late to save everyone.
"Typical dwarfs. Holding a grudge that no one cares or will remember when all that is good dies at the end." One of the twins, the older and strong built High Elf said to himself with a sour tone after hearing the news of the once ancient ally of the High Elf. Just because one of his predecessors decided to shave off the beard of the dwarf emissary as a joke led to overreaction from the Dwarfs which resulted in a broken alliance and hostile relationship that can't be repaired ever since.
"Well, that's a sail ship and I doubt dwarfs will see their end that easily. You know as I, they don't stay down even if a mountain collapses on top of them." The other twin High Elf spoke with a gentle tone as he is used to being more mature in the room due to his weak physique since he was little. Due to this, the younger brother of the twin decided to pursue the wisdom of the magic and expand his point of view more than his older brother.
The report continues through the night as twin brothers of great influence in the Ulthuan share the news and plan for the future of their race. Tyrion the Heir of Aenarion and the greatest warrior of the High Elf and Teclis the High Loremaster of Hoeth and Warden of the White Tower gather their intelligence from both Old and New World as golden light shines above the night sky.
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Somewhere in the Known World,
Under Empire, Underground City of Skavenblight,
The Council of Thirteen gather to discuss the impact and influence of the strange light above the night sky. This ruins the plan they've been making for years as strange light begins to interrupt certain flow of warp stone magic and machines of Ratmen. Many of their talented engineers reported strange malfunctions of warp-warmachines and weapons that led to many of their warriors in their untimely death.
These events led to many of the Skaven clans to clash against each other. Blaming others for an 'accident' to happen and even fight among clans due to feud of old. In the end, the Council was called and warlords of all twelve clans gathered resolve this issues including this mysterious light in the dark sky.
"I say, we must kill all troublemakers and feed their meat to our slaves. Yes, yes." One of the Skaven warlords said with a vicious smirk on his face. His reasoning is simple, his clan lost major food storage due to warp fire a few days ago by warp ammunition storage explosion. Usually, the ammunition and food storage should be separated as a common sense but Skaven tend to work things as simply as they can and having food next to weapons somehow make sense to them (Assuming that having these things together will provide easy access when needed are the reason why).
"I agree. Yes, yes. We should use this opportunity to purge the weak and fortify our number with strong clan warriors." Another warlord agrees with his counterpart as he also has a reason of his own. This warlord wishes to reduce the population so that he can breed more of his bloodline as he sees himself as strongest among his clan. Not considering the fact that certain weak Ratmen have useful skills such as engineering and smiting.
"That decision can be done through your own clan leadership. We are here to discuss the issues of that hideous light in the sky." The Seerlord of the Skaven religion spoke with anger as council was going off the subject once again. It was hard to assemble the council first of all but now each of the members are going on their own as they start to shout problems of their clans. In short, there is no unity among Skaven clans and goals of the Horned Rat are yet to achieve.
"Yes, yes. The light in the sky is making things much more difficult for all of us. We must do something now. I say, we should launch our biggest rocket towards the light so we can break it." The clan leader of the Clan Skyre said with pride in his face. Everyone knew Skyre was working on some kind of secret weapon involving warp rocket fuel but they didn't know about actual rockets that could go above the clouds. There was one problem.
"Did you just say moments ago that warp related machines are unstable and explode without any warnings?" The Warlord of the Clan Mors said with an insulting tone as this revelation came to light to all council members.
"Well, yes but we are working on stabilising the warp fuel and reconfiguring the rocket injection. My engineers just need more time and… more warp stones, that's all." The true goal of the Clan Skyre made everyone furious as this meant that Clan Skyre wanted to possess all remaining precious warp stones from the rest of the Skaven Clans.
"Typical. You Clan Skyre doesn't discipline you to use the warp stone properly at all. Nothing but a waste of resources for the 'rocket to the sky' scheme." Warlord of the Clan Moulder said with most insulting musk coming out from his fur. The masters of mutation and surgical alteration saw Clan Skyre's scheme miles away the moment the rocket was mentioned.
"I'll say, we should seek our answer from the Horned Rat. We should go out and gather all the meat we can get and make the sacrifice to our Under-Father. He will tell us what to do." The Great Seer, the member of the Council of Thirteen said with a musk of excitement coming out from his fur. This idea was agreed upon by other leaders as it was something they all can do.
"Yes, Yes! We should praise the Great Horned One for our salvation. If he approves of our hard work, he would solve our light problem once and for all. Go! Assemble our forces and gather all the meat you can get from the surface." The council unanimously agreed to the new plan without a second thought and dismissed the meeting. As each warlord of twelve clans went their own ways, their ambition started to emerge as the council's plan turned into an individual's plan and ultimately sabotaged against other clans.
Skaven's true nature once again steps out from the shadow as their ambition to be top against each other will ruin whatever the plans they have. In the end, Skaven will be Skaven even if the world comes to end.
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Month later,
Over the month, natives in the Known World saw the golden light in the sky turned into one of the small moons as it was approaching closer and closer. During the cold night sky, the meteor provided a small light that shines even the darkest forest that not even moonlight couldn't reach. During birght daytime, the golden meteor didn't really help the natives of the Known World as golden light represents different meanings to every faction and more. The wind of magic changed dramatically as magic became more wild as if the meteor itself is causing the changes that not even Lord of Change can predict.
The Cult of the Sigmar made their presence known when they reached the northern legion. Their effort, supported by the two armies of the Empire brought successful victory against the Northern Raiders known as Norsca but that was short victory as Norsca reinforcement arrived in post-battle with a full force of war mammoths and chaos frost dragons.
The Empire only managed to secure their second victory thanks to the arrival of three Bretonnian armies. The battle of the northern legion took close to a month and countless dead but in the end the humans of the Empire and Bretonnia came through as victor. With this victory, the forces of Chaos pawns return to the wasteland of the north to lick their wounds while humans of the Old World secure their lands from raiders.
Kislev also came through their battle against forces of Chaos. By securing the only northern border that led to the wilderness of Chaos wasteland, the Kislev army conducted hit and run tactics and cut the Chaos armies one at a time. In the end, the remaining Chaos forces couldn't withstand the full might of the Kislev armies as Ice Queen herself marched her forces to wipe out the invaders once and for all.
Dwarfs on the other hand endured inside of their fortress while two different factions attempted to siege the dwarf holds. By the command of the High King himself, the kings of the mountains held their holds and countered the Greenskins and wandering Chaos soldiers. Using the advanced technology of gunpowder and forged steels, the dwarfs' armies made their move when enemies were about to make their retreat. To fulfil the book of grudges, in the end, dwarfs made their check mark on their books as mountains are soaked with the blood of their enemies.
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The golden meteor finally arrived in the Known World. Making the entrance with booming noise, the golden light burned brighter than the sun itself as night sky turned day for a few seconds before once again turning to dark night. The radiant light of the meteor and sudden change of day and night disrupt the creatures of the night while certain beings died due to day like light burning their skins.
After the sound and light, the meteor is visible to the naked eyes. The golden light passes the land of Sylvania and Mootland. Shortly after, the meteor made its landing at the territory of Karak Angazhar. A small dwarf kingdom in Black Mountain located west of Black Fire Pass in the Border Princes, a known human faction not affiliated with the Empire or Bretonnia.
The first to arrive at the impact zone was the dwarf scouts who happened to be patrolling the area for potential enemies such as goblins. The dwarf scouts were expecting a small chunk of metal ball on the crater but to their surprise something else was discovered. A human female who is in golden full plate armour and holding a small metal rock as if it was the most important thing in the world.
Rana, the Living Saint of the Emperor arrived in the Known World with her son inside of the pod she held for more than a month. Nothing but sheer willpower of motherly instinct to prevent loss of her own son, Rana endured the unimaginable pain and struggle by casting a protective shield surrounding herself and her son while travelling through the warp.
The stress of void travel and landing finally break Rana's endurance as she lost her consciousness and the pod of her son was lost from her grip. When the pod rolled away, the sensor of the pod recognized the breathable atmosphere and activated the emergency release in which opened the hatch itself.
Henry Bassilo Nullinanis, the son of William Nullinanis and Rana Bassilo Beckett, took a deep breath from the Known World and opened his eyes to see the clear night sky. The natural born and next generation Primarch begin his journey at this moment as dwarf scouts holding lanterns approach them with curiosity.