Warhammer Fanfic: Starting with a Core Cabin

According to the elven scout, not long after Duanmu Huai left Silver City, that man revealed his true colors and took control of the city. He even presented an imperial decree—naturally, everyone was utterly confused. After all, it was well-known that the previous Emperor had died suddenly while on a campaign. So where did this "new Emperor" come from?

Unfortunately, they were outmatched. After the Skaven attack, Silver City was already low on manpower. With the lord dead and only widows and orphans left behind, even though Captain Cardo and his knights didn't want to submit, the situation left them no choice. In the end, they were all thrown into prison.

"I had originally planned to find a way to contact you and come up with a strategy, but I didn't expect you to act even faster than I anticipated."

The elf scout looked at the corpse beneath Duanmu Huai's feet, her expression helpless.

"Any dog of Chaos has only one end—death."

Duanmu Huai answered without a hint of concern, while the elf scout simply shook her head.

"Forget it. This isn't the place to talk. Let's find somewhere else."

Soon, the group left the hall and found a secluded location. There, Duanmu Huai learned the recent developments from the elven scout.

To put it simply, the Empire was now in complete chaos.

First, the Emperor died suddenly during his expedition. Before his corpse could even be returned to the capital, the Crown Prince wasted no time in proclaiming himself the new ruler, demanding that all his siblings submit to him. Although the Empire followed the principle of primogeniture, everyone knew how these things went—just because you're the eldest doesn't mean others will let it slide.

Of course, becoming Emperor wasn't that simple. According to imperial tradition, only a royal heir who gathered all four Sacred Relics could ascend as the next Emperor.

These four Sacred Relics were: the Hammer of the Fire God, the Blessing of the Water God, the Scepter of the Wind God, and the Wrath of the Earth God.

The Blessing of the Water God could purify and draw clean water. The Hammer of the Fire God was used to forge weapons and armor of unmatched strength. The Scepter of the Wind God could control a region's weather, and the Wrath of the Earth God could reshape terrain and landscapes.

By royal tradition, only the one who possessed all four Sacred Relics would be recognized as the next Emperor. Afterward, when that Emperor bore children, the relics would be passed down among them—thus beginning the next cycle of inheritance and contention.

Now, the Crown Prince had ordered his siblings to hand over the remaining three Sacred Relics.

The Hammer of the Fire God was in his possession. The Second Prince held the Scepter of the Wind God. The Third Prince possessed the Wrath of the Earth God. As for the Blessing of the Water God, it had no current holder—it had been secretly hidden in Silver City. …Well, Duanmu Huai had already more or less guessed who that holder was.

Naturally, the two other princes refused to comply with the Crown Prince's demands. The outcome was inevitable—civil war broke out within the Empire. With the Hammer of the Fire God, the Crown Prince gained an overwhelming advantage. His soldiers were clad in armor of unmatched durability and wielded devastating weapons, easily forcing the other two armies into retreat after retreat.

However, things didn't stop there.

The remnants of the expeditionary force, which had collapsed after the Emperor's death, also received news that the Crown Prince had declared himself the new ruler. Outraged, many among them were furious—some demanded to storm the capital and hang the treacherous son who dared seize power while his father's body was still warm.

But another faction argued that the country could not go a single day without an emperor. As the eldest son, the Crown Prince had every right to ascend the throne. Besides, the expedition had ended in failure, and foreign powers were eyeing the Empire greedily—this was the time to unite behind the Crown Prince! It's all for the Empire!

However, the opposing side clearly disagreed with this line of thinking. To them, their loyalty was to the Emperor, not the Empire. Now that the Emperor was dead and someone was trying to usurp the throne, they would never stand for it!

And so… the expeditionary army also split into two factions and began fighting each other.

But that still wasn't the end.

As the three princes each declared themselves the rightful Emperor, the already unstable Empire plunged deeper into chaos. The foreign enemies who had been repelled during the expedition weren't saints—they weren't going to just sit around. Upon hearing that the Empire had fallen into civil war and division, they naturally seized the opportunity to strike back.

On top of that, the powerful local lords within the Empire who had long been discontent finally emerged from the shadows, openly declaring their lands to be independent kingdoms that would no longer obey imperial rule…

In short, the Empire had now become a chaotic mess, overrun with factions, rebellions, and power grabs. The Crown Prince's claim to the throne was anything but secure, so he had no choice but to send trusted subordinates to lead troops across the Empire in an attempt to "reclaim" those rebellious territories.

Silver City was unfortunately one of those targets—especially after it had just suffered a devastating attack by evil god cultists, and its lord had died. To the Crown Prince, this place was the perfect lawless land, ripe for the taking.

Too bad his subordinate was crushed to death by a single swing of Duanmu Huai's warhammer.

"If you ask me, you should start packing your things and head deep into some uninhabited forest or mountain range. Once those pig-headed fools finish beating each other's brains out, you can come back. It won't be too late then."

After listening to the elf scout's analysis of the current situation, Duanmu Huai bluntly offered his suggestion. In his eyes, Silver City was basically finished. Most of its people had fled, the garrison had been decimated by the cultists and Skaven, and while Alisa was probably—and very likely—the fourth heir to the Emperor, that didn't mean much.

With her personality, no one expected her to become some Empress anyway.

So… escaping and staying alive was the most important thing.

The world is vast—why stay here to die? Even if the Empire was in chaos, this planet didn't belong to the Empire alone. Leaving aside the elves and dwarves, weren't there still other kingdoms?

Though everyone felt helpless about Duanmu Huai's suggestion, they couldn't deny it made sense.

Silver City was already desolate, barren, and extremely remote. Honestly, staying here and continuing to hold out wasn't a good choice.

If this were a web novel, this would be the part where Duanmu Huai should seize the city, declare himself king, gather refugees from all sides with his strength, then sweep across the land to unite the Empire… To this, Duanmu Huai could only say, forget it. He was a Judgement Officer—eliminating Chaos and searching for sacred relics came first. Playing some kingdom-building game here would be completely missing the point.

Besides, if he were going to play that kind of game, he'd at least pick a place with a higher level of civilization. Anything would be better than a medieval backwater.

Although the decision to flee was settled, Duanmu Huai and the elf scout still disagreed on another matter.

Namely—whether or not to take the "Water God's Gift."

Duanmu Huai believed that taking the thing was more trouble than it was worth. Not only was it useless to them, but it could also bring disaster. Better to leave it here and let the princes fight over it themselves. However, the elf scout insisted that this was a royal relic—it couldn't be allowed to fall into the hands of power-hungry opportunists. In her view, the right thing to do was to take the Water God's Gift and hide it in some secret corner of the world, sealing it away for good…

Naturally, Duanmu Huai didn't think this was a good idea either. Haven't we seen enough fantasy RPG openings like this? The protagonist lives peacefully in a quiet village, then one day an army shows up and burns the whole place to the ground—and surprise! The village was hiding a huge secret the whole time... What a joke.

This just proved that there's no such thing as a permanently kept secret.

Especially not with something like a royal symbol of authority—everyone and their mother would be chasing after it. Expecting no one to track it down was just naive.

After a long debate, the two finally compromised—Alisa would be allowed to take the sacred relic with her, but before crossing the border, she would have to hand it off to someone else to avoid bringing death upon herself.

After all, the main function of the Water God's Gift was to purify water sources—to turn any liquid into clean drinking water… To ordinary people, that really didn't mean much.

And so, the escape plan was finalized. All that remained was to unseal and retrieve the Water God's Gift.

That evening, Duanmu Huai and the others once again returned to the temple.

The stench inside was still nauseating. Though the bodies of the Skaven and corrupt cultists had long since been burned to ashes, the dark red blood splattered across the walls, mixed with streaks of yellow, green, and other unidentifiable colors, still made anyone watching want to throw up.

The elf scout stepped in front of the statue again, recited the incantation, and lifted the seal. Soon after, the giant pearl reappeared before them.

Looking at the pearl, Alisa hesitated for a moment, then slowly stepped forward and extended her hand. As expected, unlike the elf scout, she wasn't repelled upon contact. On the contrary, the moment Alisa grasped the pearl, a faint glow shimmered across its surface, and the once-dull pearl began to emit a soft radiance.

And at that very moment...

[Beep—————!]

[Sacred relic signal detected. Sacred relic coordinates locked.]

"...…Huh?"

Seeing the system notification pop up in front of him, Duanmu Huai was stunned. He glanced at the system message, then looked again at the pearl in Alisa's hands...

This counts?

To Duanmu Huai, this was truly unexpected. He had scanned this pearl before, and at the time, the system hadn't reacted at all. Yet now, the moment Alisa picked it up, the system suddenly responded? Could it be... that the seal had blocked the entire relic's signal before, making it undetectable, and now that Alisa had broken the seal, its aura could finally be sensed?

Is that how it works?

"...…Sir Knight? Is something wrong?"

Seeing Duanmu Huai staring at her silently, Alisa was a bit confused. Duanmu Huai paused for a moment, then looked directly at her.

"Alisa, how about we make a deal? Give that to me, and I'll guarantee your safe departure from the Empire."

"Eh?"

Hearing this, both Alisa and her mother were taken aback. The elf scout, on the other hand, frowned.

"What do you mean by that?!"

"Exactly what I said."

Duanmu Huai turned toward the elf scout.

"I came here to search for certain things—and this is one of them."

"But you didn't say anything before."

The elf scout clearly remembered checking the Water God's Gift with him earlier, and at the time, he hadn't said a word.

"I didn't know it was what I was looking for. Not until Alisa picked it up and broke the seal did I finally sense its aura…"

As he explained, Duanmu Huai looked back toward Alisa. But to his surprise, this time, before he could say anything more, Alisa stepped forward on her own and handed the pearl to him.

"Please take it, Sir Knight."

"Oh? Are you really okay with this?"

"Of course."

Alisa gave a slightly embarrassed smile at his question.

"You've saved me so many times already, and… this thing doesn't really have any use for me. Since you came here for it, then please take it."

"Thank you."

Looking at Alisa, Duanmu Huai nodded, then reached out to take the Water God's Gift.

"I promise—I'll get all of you out safely."

(End of this chapter)