The end, and a new beginning

“What is your name, lord?" The priestess he had just saved asked, her eyes never leaving the hordes of daemons creeping through the ruined outer wall.

"What does it matter now, sister?" Leoncoeur replied. "We are all fighters."

She looked satisfied by that. "I was hoping for an Emperor." she said dryly. "Perhaps a King will do.”

The former King had been greatly weakened by his fight against Ku’gath, and the many monsters and Champions he had fought to reach the foul daemon. He was drained to his very core, and could barely stand. Nonetheless, when a horde of fresh Plaguebearers poured into the courtyard, stand he did, bleeding but proud in place of Magnus’s fallen statue.

Though he fought valiantly, Louen was eventually felled by the Nurgle-empowered Festus Leechlord after felling several more of the daemonspawn. However, even as Festus’s plague-saw parted muscle and severed ribs, Louen fought back against the pain. He stared straight into the face of his killer, and cracked a grin. This enraged the Leechlord further, but before he could twist his plague-saw deeper, he was slain by the newly arrived Vlad von Carstein.

Mortally wounded, Louen’s last sight was the remainder of the daemons being driven from the courtyard, pursued by grey-skinned warriors in archaic armour. The High Priestess was at his side then, cradling him. He managed to shoot her a final smile, thanking her, as the light faded from his eyes, thinking about his former squire Javier and his remaining men in the city, hoping they would live to see another day.

Unexpectly, his next sight was the face of the lady herself as she looked down at him, a watery smile on her face as she stroked his hair “Rest my champion, for you did all that I could ever have asked of you and so much more.” She then kissed the top of his head and he fell into a slumber.

. /Flashback over/.

‘For all the hate I have for the undead, Vlad Von Carstein had ridden out to fight by our side and acted with courage and grace more befitting a knight rather than a vampiric necromancer. If he is somehow still clinging to undeath somewhere I’ll give him a chance as an ally next time we meet.’

After reminscing for a few more moments, the water begins glowing in front of him before the image of Lileath in her form as lady of the lake slowly materializes above it. He gives her a smile as he looks her over, making sure he can’t see anything wrong, only to stop at the glundering on her face framed by her glowing silver locks of hair before she flies out towards him with her arms out stretched, causing him to stand up and catch her.

As she tackle hugs him, he can feel her tears into his neck and shoulder as she grips onto him. “Milady…” she shushes him for a moment and he is silent, holding his goddess, usually the symbol of calm and grace, in his arms. It is not the first time he had held her, though it was the first time when in such calm circumstances while in public. The last time before in public was when he carried her weakened body away as she had been struck by a curse from Tzeench, all the while using his other hand to wield a blade with which to fight off the lesser daemons to allow them to escape.

This time was admittedly far more pleasant without the threat of **** looming over his shoulder, so he settled into the hug, and let her cry it out for a moment. The smile on her face meant that these were happy tears, far better than the few other times he had to see her cry.

After a few minutes she calmed down and pulled her head up from his shoulder, a smile still on her face “We have a chance to get them back Louen, a chance to get all of them back and get a full century of peace from the Chaos monstrosities.”

He is shocked for a second but a look her eyes and he sees how serious she is “Then we have to call up the most important Lords and immediately start planning our next steps.” She nods and smiles but does not let go “Milady?”

“We do need to do that yes, but for now I also need to have you hold me, if for no other reason then to re-assure myself that this is all real.” She looks him in the eye, and he feels as if he is pulled back to the old world again, to the night before the final battle at Altdorf.

Where through a dream visit she told him that he didn’t have to charge into this last unwinnable battle after a life of fighting for the world, that she would lend him what little of her power remained to let him just wander the world with a weak avatar of her at his side, to experience what it was like to be normal people for once in their lives, if only until her power in the world waned as the world went.

Again he sees her desire to just be held and cared for for once as if she isn’t the only thing keeping hundreds of thousands alive, but instead a normal woman held by a man she cares for, even if only for a few minutes. He does so, carrying her with him towards the meeting hall as she sends a message towards her subjects through the magic of her realm.

As he sits down in his seat at the table, her still held in his arms, the door open and he looks up to see that it is Araloth that enters first, followed by the leader of her Damsels, Allison. They both look at the scene, but stay silent and sit themselves down, Araloth with a smile that his goddess has found some measure of joy again in these dark times before their remaining three members arrive.

After several minutes pass Lileath looks up from his shoulder before turning slightly and smiling at the other two, just as the Alberic de Bordeleaux arrives and freezes at the sight. The last two arrive together, lady Repanse de Lyonesse and Henri Le Massif as they are discussing the state of the training facilities for the squires and men at arms.

They bump into Alberic de Bordeleaux and look to him only to turn their gaze to what he is staring at and see the Lady sitting essentially in Louens lap. Both quickly join the younger man in staring. The Lady chuckles slightly at this before she stands up and goes to sit on her own throne, gesturing for the three knights to do the same as they quickly shake of their surprise before seating themselves.

The Lady looks around for a moment with a smile gracing her face “Welcome to you all, my dearest subjects. I have great news for all of us, we have a chance to regain our old world, and even the possibility of saving a sizable number of those we lost previously.” They all stare at her silently, holding their breath in anticipation for what she will say next as the sphere around the room changes to one of **** hope. She then begins her explanation of the deal, the risks and above all, the reward at victory.

The Lords and Ladies look between themselves for a moment after she finishes before they turn back towards the Lady as Louen speaks up “Milady while I will jump at the chance and fight with all my might, as will our other brave companions at this table.” Affirming noises can be heard “I was previously depending on the situation either on equal footing or somewhat stronger than their most powerful deamonic servants. How are we meant to fight the Gods of Chaos directly.”

She smiles “That is the beautiful part about this, as all remember I told of them taking over the forms of those servants that you were equal to. Except what they are taking is the ‘ingame’ form of said servants, who like everyone start far weaker than they actually were at their heights. And we managed to finangle in a clause of the various mortal leaders starting at a point roughly equal to when the world ended.”

Her smile turns vicious now “So when facing them they will be in bodies that they are unused to, weaker than those bodies are supposed to be and the only one of them that has actually personally fought against something even close to an equal in centuries is Khorne. And Slaanesh and Nurgle haven’t noticed yet, only Tzeench and surprisingly Khorne did, but they relished in the challenge of it all.”

Then Repanse speaks up “But milady, these are the Chaos Gods, what was the catch?” At these words some of her earlier enthusiasm left her.

“They will have several things in their favour, especially early on, and all of them can be summed up in two words: sheer numbers. Not only will almost every faction leader even slightly aligned to Chaos from before remember things from the world that was, the Chaos Gods themselves will also get sizable armies of their followers with them once they start. So we will need to move extremely quickly to be able to support those standing against them as early as possible. In addition, a number of the systems in place will be not fully natural mechanics from the ‘game’ as it were, and they have far more experience with that than you will.”

Now her smile turns more joyous again “Though on that front you will get something positive once entering the world: during the last battles, myself and the other Gods of order tried to save as many souls as we could from Chaos, some of those went to the same world the ‘game’ comes from and have agreed to return, and fight by your sides once more. You will meet them upon entering the world through the portals that activate tomorrow.”

She looks around “Any more questions?” at the negatives she smiles “Good, go break the news to your subordinates, and choose those that will march with you through the portals to fight for the fate of the world once more.”