A total of six hours passed, and nearly every weapon and tool possible was used to damage the ship, from the experimental gunpowder artillery pieces to even a pickaxe; not a thing left a mark on the ship.
Furthermore, not a single person dared to step onto the 'cursed' ship. Instead, with the help of labourers and horses, a plan was arranged to drag the ship and dump it into a hole outside the city's walls.
The movement of the ship was incredibly slow, as priests of Lord Nazareth's churches threw 'holy water' whilst chanting prayers to remove the 'daemon' from the ship as it was being dragged through the streets of Luminar.
Soldiers lined each side of the ship whilst it was being dragged towards the gatehouse, blocking any free slaves from stepping too close.
Nazareth, meanwhile, was reading the transcripts that the slavers had been captured with, and the contents blew his mind.
The papers described Volantis, the first and greatest of the slave cities, as being in civil war. The Tiger Party, with the help of the religion of the Lord of Light, went to war with the Elephant Party due to a pleasure cult appearing overnight and taking over the whole family.
The death toll of the whole civil war had already exceeded tens of thousands, as the warrior culture, Tiger family, with the help of 'Angels' from the Lord of Light church, fought against the erratic and pleasure-filled Elephant family, which, out of nowhere, launched attacks with maniacs filled with all sorts of drugs onto the Tiger family's warriors.
Reports even showed that mutations had appeared, with the leading class of pleasure maniacs at the top of the Elephant family being turned into hermaphrodites and seeking ultimate perfection within their wildly differing crafts.
Off all this chaos, multiple slavers and opportunists took the chance to charge into the warring city and capture slaves, which had been used as shields by the Tiger Party and pleasure slaves for the Elephant Party.
The short report made Nazareth's stomach turn as he remembered the cults of Slaanesh, the god of pleasure. She would whisper in your ear about pleasures beyond comprehension whilst, in the other, suck your brain from your ear.
A cold shiver ran over Nazareth as he waved for an attendant to come forward.
'Yes, my Lord?'
With a commanding tone, Nazareth spoke.
'Those slaves which had been captured… kill them, then burn the remains.'
Nazareth's tone left little to the feelings of usefulness. Originally, he wished for the slaves to be integrated, but when he read the manuscripts of the ship, he didn't want his city to turn into a hedonistic wasteland.
The attendant froze for just a second before replying:
'I will inform High Inquisitor Erich of your decree, my Lord.'
The attendant quickly moved to the exit of the throne room before disappearing in the movements of other servants and labourers.
– Location – The Island City of New Ghis –
'Stop them!'
A roar of orders came from the pyramid's entrance as the Iron Legions loyal to Emperor Giscarn fought against the ever-encroaching sickly green bodies of slaves.
The battle for the central city of Ghis started less than a week ago, when in the bowels of New Ghis' slums, reports of disease came with children becoming bloated and men and women both having skin peeling off in heaves.
At first the officials believed it to be a standard plague and issued warnings, burning bodies and sending Ghiscari priests to stamp out infections.
Over the course of two days this seemed to work; this was until the gatehouse separating the slums of Ghis from the pyramids and port saw tides of bloated, pus-filled and maggot-infested walkers which ran towards the Iron Legion soldiers stationed at the gates.
Within an hour of the walkers' arrival, nearly every gatehouse had been swarmed by bodies of sickly green, bone-protruding zombies.
Every swing of an Iron Legion weapon made the zombies explode with gore, each time getting the soldiers covered in the green and white blood of the infected. Unfortunately, within a few minutes, those covered in the blood of the infected started to turn on their fellows. Hundreds of soldiers turned, ripping their colleagues' throats out and biting their way through their superiors.
Chaos had fully erupted within New Ghis as the Iron Legions, mostly staffed within the greatest temples of Ghis, were sent outward to repel this infection.
Yet those who were sent never came back, but instead returned with missing limbs or whole parts of their upper bodies showing rapid malnourishment before being burned by the remainder of the Iron Legions stationed in the great temples and pyramids.
The Emperor, Lord Giscarn, second of his name, prepared for the invasion of his temple by collecting all the readily-bodied soldiers and servants and arming them to combat the zombie threat.
The old and weak were forced to charge into the near-endless hordes with whale oil and torches, blowing up themselves and thousands of the zombies with them.
Now, with the collapsing of the flaming pillars for their god Ghis, the endless sickly green hordes amassed upon the great pyramid of Giscarn.
'Rhazak! Those beasts have broken through the northern entrance and have made it to the central reservoir!'
Commander of the Iron Legions, Rhazak, listened to the situation carried from the fronts. The sound of screaming and moaning in pain was never-ending.
His soldiers had been slaughtered; each wave sent against the hordes would just return after ten minutes, joining the enemy. There was no way to win this battle; even suicide charges with whale oil could only hold off the hordes for what seemed to be seconds before bulbous and pus-filled men or women would charge forward and explode, putting the fire out and letting the horde charge once again.
In the situation room of the Emperor's pyramid, officers and nobles not already turned by the endless hordes of slaves, soldiers, and family had grave looks marking their faces, as already multiple of the officials had taken their own lives after seeing their wives, sons or daughters ripped apart or simply turned, then charged against them.
The command structure of the mighty New Ghis Kingdom lay in ruin; the Emperor, for all his worth, was walled within his chambers, refusing to leave.
A huff escaped Rhazak before shouting from outside the room attracted his and the other officials' attention.
With a burst of green, murky and suffocating air, the doors were pushed open to see a 'thing' of rotten flesh crawling on its knees as its head, an amassing of antlers and keratin, opened its gore of a mouth. Its jaws revealed a tongue of impossible length swirling as maggots and mixtures of different things came crawling and flying from it.
The thing seemed to scan the room before opening with a smile. Its jaws moved in mimicry of speech as a green cloud of air escaped from its maw and a distorted, horrific voice of flesh being pulled and the smell of rot overwhelmed the officials.
'Hrggk… h-hello… *coughs wetly* … I have sh-shambled forth… on behalf… of the Grandfather… the bloated benevolence… N–Nur… Nurgle…'
The thing heaved as that short sentence seemed to have winded it. Some officials heaved at the sight of the thing speaking their tongue as they hurled insults and threw up onto the paved floor.
The 'thing' seemed to welcome the sight of the official throwing up; its jaws opened, revealing rows upon rows of serrated, rotten and disgusting teeth.
'Ghhrk… the Grandfather… y-yes, he… His blessings—welcomes all new rot-born into His ever-swelling embrace… with arms slick, warm, and wiiide open…'
The officials, disgust openly displayed on their faces, couldn't even let out a peep before the thing moved with inhuman speed. Almost immediately the official who had hurled was swallowed whole by the 'thing'.
Screams and roars of pain erupted from the room as the blessings of Nurgle rained from the sickly green sky. The hordes outside the pyramid danced and stumbled upon one another as they spun around and around, singing praises to their benevolent god.
(AN: Their is litteraly jackshit ab New Ghis, other than some some mentions from Old Valyria so most of this is made up. Furthermore Two of the four gods have arrived Who will be next for that idk.)