Warhammer Divine Throne

Chapter 1009: Chapter 439: Battle Shifts to Jisoleox (3)

Chaos Tomb Digger Sword! Kemler gripped the hilt at his waist.

No, not yet. At least not now.

”Head north, to Atuo and Jisoleox! Tell me, where is the corpse pit of Duke Zilfroy of Atuo and his Knight Family.” Kemler gave up arguing with Mathew Bade; he thought to himself that Mathew Bade was still useful for now: ”We will wait there for Brittania’s main force and crush them in one stroke!”

When Mathew Bade is no longer useful, that will be the time to summon Guer and behead this Duke of Musillon.

The time for the final battle is not yet ripe.

But it doesn’t matter. Let this country taste pain first.

Mathew Bade was somewhat curious. He had witnessed the combat strength of Kemler’s Ancient Tomb Legion; it was indeed very strong, but it did not have any particularly obvious advantage when facing a Knightly Army.

Why was he so confident he could swallow Brittania’s main force?

More importantly, Mathew Bade kept feeling that something about Kemler’s conduct was off, yet he couldn’t put his finger on exactly what.

Kemler... was a bit too fond of slaughter and destruction. As Undead, a proper amount of killing as a warning and creating corpse pits was necessary, but the goal of the Undead was ultimately dominion, not annihilation.

Was it his hatred of this country that caused it?

Over the next two weeks, Heinrich Kemler and his Ancient Tomb Legion began to roam through the mountainous regions of the Gray Mountain Range and the great woodland of Arden Forest. The Ancient Tomb Legion attacked every settlement along the way; dozens of villages in succession were utterly wiped out under the assault of the Undead Legion, and the Undead Army snowballed larger and larger.

The armies of the Knight Kingdom were run ragged, rushing back and forth to block them, but the cunning Undead Grand Mage never appeared on the plains or hills. He and his army operated only in the mountains and forests. The Undead knew no fatigue and needed no rest; the Knights simply could not keep up with the pace of the Ancient Tomb Legion.

The Jisoleox Duchy suffered devastating attacks from Kemler. One town after another was reduced to scorched earth, one village after another turned into vast corpse pits. Count Jean-Harun, left behind to guard the Duchy, was simultaneously scrambling in desperation to marshal troops to defend each pass and frantically sending pleas for aid across the entire Kingdom.

Late autumn, southern Jisoleox Duchy, in a clearing within the woods.

A Knightly Army from the south was encamped there.

”We’ve received word from Regent Lorne that the northern Knightly Army is still concentrating and reorganizing.” Duke of Winford, Francois stood together with Duke Fulcard, Laine, and the others, looking down at the map.

Three black lines covered the entire Jisoleox Duchy. At present, only a few strongholds in the north and east of this Duchy had yet to fall. The south had been completely occupied by the Undead Army, and more than sixty percent of the Lords had been overrun.

”Duke Lorne has only managed to gather the Knights of Connet and Le Anglong; the Leonais Duchy has refused to send troops.” Duke Fulcard’s brow was tightly knitted; he said with displeasure, ”Aldred really isn’t in his right mind!”

”After last year’s invasion by Egil, the northern Duchies all suffered tremendous losses. To this day, the Leonais Duchy still has many no-man’s-lands in the north, constant internal turmoil, Peasant uprisings, cultist activity, tangled lines of succession and noble infighting. It’s understandable that they’re unable to send troops.” Laine said quietly, ”Duke Aldred at the moment cannot even control his own Duchy, let alone send troops to support us.”

”We can’t advance rashly; none of us knows what might be waiting ahead.” Kaled looked at the map and continued, ”That’s exactly how Bastogne’s reinforcements were wiped out.”

Everyone nodded.

Despite repeated emphasis on advancing together, Count Rabiou of Bastogne had still charged ahead regardless, leading two thousand men to rush to Jisoleox as advance reinforcements. The result was total annihilation; he himself was resurrected as one of the Undead Knights.

This defeat provoked mutual accusations among Brittania’s nobles. The Southern People denounced the northerners for moving too slowly and failing to support them in time; the northerners denounced the southerners for their arrogance—despite the main army already having reached the south of Jisoleox, they had stubbornly refused to seek a decisive battle with the Ancient Tomb Legion, which was what led to Count Rabiou and his reinforcements being wiped out.

In the end, Laine and Lorne stood up together and forcibly suppressed the quarrel using the will of the Lake Fairy.

But this could not go on; prestige would run out sooner or later.

The group had been discussing together for a long time. The dilemma they now faced was that if they advanced slowly, the Knight Army would never catch up with the Undead Legion’s pace; if they marched at forced speed, they would be easily wiped out should they run into an ambush.

After thinking for a while, Laine suddenly fixed his gaze on the Black Stone Stronghold.

”I have a plan...” Count Glamorgan said softly.

”What plan?” Francois asked casually.

”It is...”