Chapter 448 Fish in the Pond
The wind of magic roared in the broken sky, like boiling hot water, and the lightning and thunder under the scorching sun dyed the clouds blue.
Edes and Rotel, who were hiding in the alleys, were both affected by the chaos. By the time they reacted, the situation had evolved from local chaos into a riot of the lower town against the upper town.
The knights who were denounced as fallen by Rotaire surfaced one after another. There was no need to identify them. Those who took the opportunity to slaughter them must be traitors who were not trustworthy.
Because they were not wearing armor, the two warriors had to carefully avoid the streets where the fighting was most intense. At this time, any hidden arrow could take their lives as long as the arrow hit a vital point.
They must meet the still wavering neutrals as soon as possible, find evidence of corruption along the way, and purge the pagans hidden in the Church of Yurik in one fell swoop.
But in the current chaos, such an idea is simply a luxury.
The two could only jump off the street, climb the rocks in the ravines, and pray to the gods of their respective beliefs that they could arrive safely.
Perhaps the gods really heard their prayers. The priest and the knight only felt that some smooth and hard hands were pinching their bodies. In the next moment, they flew into the sky and fell to the side of the knights who were watching from the sidelines at an extremely fast speed.
"Oh! That's terrible!"
"Where is the king of men?"
“There is no precedent for this and according to tradition, it still needs to be discussed.”
"We shouldn't interfere in human affairs. This would go against the clan's rules and regulations."
"Hey~ We are already violating the rules by standing here, so who cares!"
The dwarves were arguing in a mess, occasionally hitting the engineering facilities in the square with hammers to emphasize their sentences. Lynch was worried that they would break the machine again.
At this sensitive moment, outsiders really shouldn't interfere in human affairs. This is their own business.
Maybe it started out as a simple march, but now it has turned into a civil war.
Before the city defense forces turned their guns towards the city, the riots were gradually under control.
Perhaps because they felt that the fire was not burning strongly enough, sporadic Beastmen and Chaos Warriors emerged from corners, and some cultists no longer suppressed themselves and appeared wantonly, successfully drawing away the hatred of most people.
Perhaps it would be better if they did not come out. In that case, no party would interfere in human affairs, and some teams that chose to remain neutral due to friendship would not join in.
When they appeared in full force, chaos briefly climbed to its peak, and the Chaos Cultists who hacked and killed indiscriminately in the crowd spread fear in all directions, and then the citizens of Middenheim, who had never known fear, bounced the fear back.
First there was a call, and the appearance of mutants was spread by word of mouth. The city-wide fighting that was originally relatively restrained turned directly into a spontaneous war mobilization amid waves of "chaos invasion".
Apart from those who were interested among the citizens, a large number of Imperials focused their attention on the Chaos forces. When thousands of Beastmen and Mutants emerged on the ground, some Knights who were blinded by hatred also reacted.
But more knights continued to charge at the citizens, seemingly unaware that the forces of Chaos had sneaked into the city.
At this point, it is quite convincing to label them as the Fallen who are "colluding with Chaos", as their fanatical killing is indeed extreme.
The first cannon fired was an experimental "beer mortar" from the dwarven community. Whether intentional or due to a calibration error, the first shell landed on the knights who were still fighting a civil war.
Under pressure, the defenders on the city wall almost opened fire into the city. Before they could take action, the strong locals captured the city wall, and only a few unlucky people were injured in the jostle.
This was due to the defenders' passive resistance consciousness. No matter what orders certain superiors gave, they could not change the fact that they should not fire at the imperial citizens.
A huge fireball flew out from the center of the city as a result of a successful spell, and it hit the turret on the city wall directly. However, it was turned into a cloud of green smoke by other spellcasters before it was halfway through its flight.
By the time the White Wolf Temple declared the knights who were still engaged in civil war as apostates and called on all the people of Middenheim to fight back in self-defense, the situation had smoothly transitioned from civil war to foreign war.
Maybe those bloodthirsty knights in the crowd were just impulsive, or maybe they really believed in evil gods in secret, who knows? Anyway, they were abandoned.
The "Red Crown" had never planned such a successful coup. The seeds of violence took root among the people. With the cooperation of the "Scarlet Skull", the remnants of the "Purple Hand" were nothing more than a pile of loose sand.
Yes, they lost their core members, but over the years, the "Red Crown" without a leader has long been accustomed to fighting on their own.
Who cares about the group that planned the "paradise"? The rest of them are only responsible for inciting rebellion, and even if the other groups are wiped out, it will not affect them.
Some lower-level officials also hoped that Middenheim would undergo major changes so that they would have the opportunity to be promoted, which made the initial achievements of the "Red Crown" unprecedentedly fruitful.
But the smooth performance was as short-lived as fireworks. First, an unknown force attacked their liaison team, and for some reason all their warlocks misfired, failing to blow up the scheduled bridge as planned.
Another team responsible for pacifying the beasts failed to suppress the Beast King underground, causing the Beastmen and Chaos Warriors, who were supposed to appear last, to show up early.
What was even worse was the ratmen's indifference. They had agreed that the rats would take action when necessary. They even argued for several days about the ambiguous word "necessary".
In the end, there was nothing, not even a furry mouse appeared on the street.
What’s even more infuriating is that group of Slaanesh believers, they haven’t even made a single move so far.
The noble private soldiers and dwarves who were originally wavering immediately took sides when the horned beast emerged from the ground. The situation has become clear. If they don't find a way to escape Middenheim, they will have to wait for the reckoning in the future.
Middenheim is a fortress city that is easy to defend and difficult to attack, both from the inside out and from the outside in.
The remnants of the "Purple Hand" who had suffered an unexpected disaster tried to shrink their forces as much as possible, but in the chaos they lost the two elemental mages who came to Middenheim to investigate. Now every warlock is worried about the future.
There are still some items that cannot be made public that have not been transported away. Middenheim has always been difficult to cross, and it may be too late to go down the mountain now.
The barrel of explosives that was suddenly ignited seemed to be damp and ultimately failed to explode, even though the fuse had burned to the end.
The civil war in Middenheim lasted less than half a day, after which demons and modified creatures poured out of the streets. The demons' lackeys were obviously not prepared to deal with the search, and the outraged citizens united unprecedentedly at this time and directly cleared the streets.
Lynch only slightly suppressed the summoned demon. In fact, it would be the same if he didn't suppress it. He just added a peak to the mountain-like pressure that the demon was bearing.
Lynch didn't know whether they had any sense of shame. It was definitely not an honorable thing to be killed by the most ordinary non-professional soldier.
(End of this chapter)
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