Nazareth stood among the tireless working of the forgers, each resounding hammer striking the phase iron made the metal let out an inhuman screech. A total of eight hundred forgers worked tirelessly, producing swords, sickles, spears, and every type of melee weapon for their god's army.
The forgers hadn't been cooled in over fourteen hours. Nazareth stood among them, personally crafting weapons for his troops. His figure, at nearly three and a half metres tall, drew attention throughout the whole workshop as passers-by watched their god tirelessly hammer the phase iron, making near masterpieces before quenching the burning iron in a bath of water.
The furnaces burned with white and blue fire as cauldrons of iron were lowered over the massive pits of the furnaces with hundreds of bars inside, melting the phase metal.
From outside the immense workshop was the marching of troops. Hundreds of labourers conscripted to participate in this war were swiftly forced by the Kriegman to train like hell until many could move no longer.
In each of the soldiers' hands was a weapon forged from phase iron, each letting out a sensation which seared the wearer's hand.
The soldiers marched in sync as Kreigmen and officers shouted orders for the new army to march and salute as the battalion-sized group marched past the forge. The synchronised steps of the soldiers made the air move with power as each soldier, still marching in sync, tried to look into the workshop to see their god.
Nazareth gave a simple wave with his left hand before, and with his right, hammered the phase iron into a plate for armour.
Originally, the amount of phase iron he had purchased was twenty tons, but this was quickly deemed insufficient for his new army. He planned to arm at least every soldier with a piece of equipment capable of harming a daemon, even if that meant becoming bankrupt.
Surprised was Nazareth that with the rapid conscription of the population of Luminar, there was little to no pushback from locals. All seemed to welcome the chance to fight for their god. Although those who had fought against the idea were made to have a discussion with Erich before swiftly changing their minds.
In total, he had spent the remainder of his points on phase iron, nearly two hundred tons. At first, he didn't believe he could pay for so much, but what mildly shocked him was that, with his people having such fervour and with his help in the forges, the system deemed this 'industrial' output of Luminar to have increased, giving Nazareth points as a reward.
This meant that with enough time, he could abuse this method to farm points. A cheesy grin appeared on Nazareth's face as he hammered the new slab of phase iron into the shape of a sickle. With his hand, he picked the burning, raw-hot weapon and quenched the metal in a bath of water to his side.
The metal screamed before being pulled back from the bath, and with Nazareth inspecting the weapon, he threw the iron on a pile quickly growing as nearly every forger placed or threw their weapons into this ever-growing pile as attendants picked and chose weapons to give to their new soldiers.
From the sound of hammer against iron came rapid footsteps as an attendant arrived before Nazareth's forge and spoke with urgency.
"My Lord! The scouts from Yunkai have sent images back, and the war council has called for your attendance."
"Let us go then," Nazareth spoke with a hint of exhaustion.
Nazareth looked at the attendant before, with a wave of his hand, armour appeared around him as he started to follow the attendant. Each forger he passed knelt before, quickly continuing with their work.
Location - War Council - Within the Yherizan Pyramid -
Nazareth pushed the golden-encrusted marble doors open to see his generals and officials waiting for their god to arrive.
Every person within the room quickly stood and saluted the arrival of their god as Nazareth moved to his seat at the head of the finely crafted timber table.
"You all may be seated," Nazareth spoke as the officials quickly took their seats and the meeting began.
"My Lord, we will begin with the images sent from scout teams Axe and Shovel."
The data-slate-like device implanted within the timber table emitted a green glow as three images were projected, one directly towards Nazareth, with the other two floating like a triangle formation so every person within the room could see.
The images showed the city of Yunkai, a previous fellow slave city, with its tall, fascinating walls, with a harpy perched atop on fire. Its walls of white, sandy marble texture had red, bloody stains marking their surface, as scenes of battle could be seen.
The greatest of the pyramids at the centre of the city had a truly massive harpy; perched atop was seen in one photo as still standing and in the other being brutally torn apart by a daemon with fleshy, charcoal-like wings.
The room was silent as Nazareth watched as multiple images showed rivers of people flooding out of the city.
As the images changed again and again to show different views, Jurten stood up.
"Lord, scout team Shovel believes that the daemons are purposely letting civilians go and sending them north towards Luminar."
"Why do they believe that, Jurten?" Nazareth spoke as he posed the question, as his mind quickly came to reasons.
"Lord, I, along with the team leader of Shovel, think the daemons want to sow chaos at the arrival of refugees from Yunkai, making the defence of Luminar more difficult."
The silence within the room greatly increased as Carl, a Kriegsmann who arrived with Nazareth on Cain's back, stood.
"My Lord, given the current food supply, if we were to take the refugees, it would strain our ability to feed our own soldiers, and with the current rates of consumption by the city and the decrease of shipments from trade, we have less than two weeks' supply."
The room became tense at the possibility of starvation appearing within the city.
"What of the villages around Luminar? As I recall, we had nearly twenty towns which supplied the city with food as tribute?" Nazareth spoke as Jill stood.
"My Lord, given the fall of Meereen, the standard tributes which would be sent have instead been squandered by the villages, as the original deal for tribute was with the slavers of Meereen, not your holiness."
"Blasphemy", "Foolishness", calls for the stupidity of the villages rang out as the officials shouted their anger at the villages' greed.
Karl, one of the original Kreigmen first to arrive, stood up as the attention turned to him.
"My Lord, if the villages will not yield tribute, then let us deploy a force to seize their supplies and bring their inhabitants to Luminar to serve in the construction of our defences."
The murmurs of agreement rang out as the idea of more manpower and more food greatly influenced the officials.
Nazareth, however, sat quietly as he thought of how long until the daemon army marched upon his city.
"Although the idea is extreme to a degree, I support this notion for the conscription and occupation of the villages," Jill spoke with open agreement as she turned to her god.
"Very well. Karl, you shall go with a company and seize what is ours." With an immediate movement, Karl stood and saluted, "It will be my honour, my Lord!"
"Anyway, let's move to the organisation of soldiers and fortification of Luminar," Nazareth spoke as he looked towards Harry and his attendant, who quickly supplied the other officials with paper diagrams of the city.
"My Lord, at this moment we have successfully reinforced the northern, southern, and eastern gatehouses and are working to close any secret entrances which the former Great Slavers had within the city."
Location - Outskirts of Yunkai -
Time - 36 Hours before War Council Meeting -
Selmy looked to his back as his steed, a beast of eight limbs with scars marking every inch of its body, walked forward as roars and blood-curdling screams made some of the bloodletters assigned to Selmy laugh.
The procession of slaves being whipped and stabbed by Khorne's daemons made the surrounding ones laugh at the pitiful looks on the slaves not killed at Astapor. Beasts similar to Selmy's steed or more similar to shadowcats and a mix of flesh hounds prowled as the slaves not keeping up with the main procession were brutally torn apart and swallowed.
Selmy, still sat upon his steed, looked ahead to the remainder of 'his' army. At its front was Randack the bloodletter leading the procession as Skarbrand, the daemon of eighteen metres tall and wings of fire and flesh, hovered above, looking down at the newly appearing city of Yunkai.
A roar of excitement escaped Skarbrand as his axe in one hand twirled, and the daemons below felt the thirst coming from their leader and let out roars of equal excitement.
Selmy watched as the daemons, all blood-coloured and ash-dipped beasts, roared and shrieked. A voice of reason at the back of his head called how stupid he was to listen to Randack, and that the daemon was only using him. Yet the feeling of power and the anger at the giant and woman who humiliated him quickly tore apart his reason as he too let out a yell of excitement.
(AN: Sorry for not posting yesterday. Wrote a full chapter and then had a full Sunday dinner and minced everything. Felt full and fell asleep in my chair, you know the feeling when you wake up covered in sweat, and you're disoriented as fuck, I promptly turned my computer off, not saving my work and went to bed. I then woke up this morning, seeing that my work wasn't saved and got quite pissed, so this chapter was kinda a rush job.)