Just being a dark elf in Warhammer

"Welcome, friend, welcome!"

A voice came from behind. Ren, who was no longer looking at the amulet, cursed and turned around. A thin figure was walking towards him along the slope, and then another figure crawled out of the fog that gathered in the dark street. Up the slope, emerging from cracked arches and dark openings, creeping into view with a manic longing.

"Welcome, friend, welcome." The first person to speak stopped in a relatively safe area. He smiled, showing a mouth full of brown teeth. But unlike last time, the smile disappeared from his face. After observing Ren for a moment, he said, "If you are here, you must die."

Ren was sure that this person was talking and talking to him. He knew the tasks and missions given to him by Darkus, so he invested more energy in this area, and now he can understand most languages. But he couldn't understand what the man was saying. The words were obscure and beyond his comprehension.

The figure moved, moving so fast that Ren could barely see him. The blade twisted in his hand, trying to saw off Ren's wrist holding the sword.

Ren roared and slashed with his sword, the blade hit the figure, and then the blade passed through the figure, turning into two pieces and falling to the ground. He spun on the spot and kicked out. Another figure that rushed up flew backwards and hit a nearby arch, breaking the thin glass window. When the debris rained down, the figure collapsed in the middle of the glass, making a gurgling sound, and a piece of debris got stuck in the figure's jugular vein.

He stepped back and came to the vicinity of the figure. When he got closer, he heard a sound like ice cracking. The sound came again, and he realized it was coming from the largest shard of glass, its surface bending and stretching upwards to break.

"I told you, now is not the time!"

The figure's hands were waving, groping on the debris-strewn ground. He glared at Ren as he approached, growling and speaking in a language Ren didn't understand. His voice echoed with a strange sound, as if it came from a distant place yet seemed so close.

Ren ignored the figure's words and swung his sword away. As the fragments shattered, the figure's howling suddenly stopped and there was silence. However, before he could observe or recover, he heard the sound of metal hitting stone. He turned around nervously, and a tall and thin figure looked at him from the stairs.

"Undead?"

He saw the figure holding a huge spear in one hand and a buckler tied to the other. But this is nothing, because the figure's skeleton is wrapped in tattered armor and a fur cloak.

Other equally rotten figures stood behind the figure, one wearing a hood and a tattered cloak, leaning on a giant scythe only used by farmers. The other was dressed in relatively fine but now tattered clothes. The third wore relatively plain armor.

In addition to these four figures, further away there were dozens of skeletons wearing rags and holding tattered weapons climbing up the hillside from all directions.

"Who..." the skeleton holding the spear asked hoarsely, his voice like sand scraping against stone.

"Stay away from me, stay back!" Ren said sternly.

The skeleton didn't say anything this time, maybe because he didn't understand what Ren was saying, or maybe because the words just now were his limit.

"Fresh meat, meat, meat, meat...still hungry, always hungry." The figure in tattered clothes stared at Ren and panted.

Ren still didn't understand, and he had no thoughts of saying anything or provoking. He had fought dead men before, but it was no fun, no blood, no screaming, no life to snuff out, no joy or fear. He held the Blade of Reality across his chest and made final preparations before the battle.

The speaking skeleton made a dismissive gesture and waved his spear. Another skeleton in armor stepped forward to greet Ren, as if he were a warrior of some great lord. He pulled out a huge two-handed sword from the scabbard on his back.

Renn waited for the skeleton to approach, but what he didn't expect was that the skeleton's movements were more elegant than he expected. When the skeleton attacks, a wide sweeping attack nearly cuts him in half. But he didn't jump back, trying to open the distance between himself and the sword. He took a gamble, holding the back of the front end of the sword with his left hand, and placed the blade horizontally within the sweeping range of the sword. This time, what he expected happened.

When the sword broke, he rushed forward and kept pushing the skeleton back, leaving long and thin knife marks on the skeleton's armor. He roared and vented all kinds of things. The sword in the skeleton's hand had already been cut into three pieces, leaving only the handle that he was holding tightly. Whenever the skeleton chose to retreat or advance, he could predict it, and the sword kept swinging. Although the skeleton was very flexible, his blade always hit the skeleton's armor.

The other skeletons watched the horrific dance in silence, their eyes flickering like candles in the darkness.

The Reality Blade swung out again, hissing, the air split by the sword, the skeleton was hit as he twisted, he lost his balance and fell to the ground. Renne, who was pursuing the victory, used a move that Druchi considered extremely vulgar and dangerous, a move that he would never use before he obtained the Blade of Reality. He raised his hands above his head and chopped off the blade. .

The blade slashed into the skeleton's torso, slicing into exposed ribs. He tried to get up, stumbling back, but he could no longer get up, his torso suffering the fate of his greatsword.

Ren jumped up and pushed the upper half of the skeleton's torso to the ground. He struck the skeleton's sword-holding arm with his sword blade and separated the skeleton's hand from its wrist. He hooked his fingers around the skull of the skeleton, whose free hand gripped his forearm, but to no avail. With a roar, he ripped the skull off the skull and threw it aside.

"Next!" Ren roared as he stood up.

The spear-wielding skeleton stared at Ren, then he raised his spear, and the other skeletons began to advance. This time there was no duel, only death.

Ren gritted his teeth and raised his sword high. He knew that he would die. There were too many monsters that could not communicate, and there was no way to escape nearby. He was ready for the final push. Faced with this situation, it was better to face the difficulties and die at the time of his own choosing rather than wait for death to come to him. He started to sprint, but one word stopped him.

"No!"

This time he could finally understand. He saw the advancing skeletons stop, and the spear-holding skeleton turned slightly. When an armored figure passed through the team and climbed up the slope, the light in the skull's eye sockets became even brighter. It's brighter.

But he didn't put too much energy on the spear-wielding skeleton, but looked at... He couldn't describe it. The new figure was taller than him. It might be his own height or the style of the armor. , appears very high. The armor was not bulky, but rather slender. He couldn't determine the style because it was the first time he had seen this type of armor.

On the armor's elbows and knees were lewd faces, and demonic shapes cavorted across the scarred armor. The helmet was shaped into the shape of a grinning face, round and happy, with a stiff head of black hair rising from the top of the helmet and hanging down on the back. Wearing a faded sky-blue shabby cloak on his back, his hand rested on the worn hilt of a broken sword low on his waist.

"Long time no see, my friend."

The figure's voice was deep and loud, but it sounded strange.

"I don't know you!" Ren's face darkened, and he looked around warily, wondering if this was some kind of trick or some kind of psychological deficit.

"I'm sorry, I'm Zuvas, you'd better come with me." The figure said while making a contemptuous gesture.

"Why?"

"Because if you don't leave with me, you will die and the dead will take you away."

Ren paused and looked at the skeletons surrounding him. He was sure that if he continued to fight, he would die. He knew it was dangerous to follow Darkus, he knew, he always knew, he knew he would die sooner or later, but he didn't want to die here, not now. He should have died on the battlefield, in a political conflict, or died of old age in Lustria, not here.

"Very good." He said reluctantly, slowly lowering the blade of reality.

"You're smart, always have been." Zuvas smiled, a hollow voice full of resentment and bitterness. He turned around and continued, "Come on."

"Where is this?" Ren asked cautiously after leaving the layers of skeletons.

"A pair of fleshless hands knocked on my door, and I fled desperately into the unknown." Zuvas pointed upward and waved his hands dramatically.

Ren resisted the urge to swing his sword and stared coldly at Zuvas who was walking alongside him. He had too many questions now.

"The proof is before you, here is the lost glory trapped between light and shadow. I can explain more if you want, I have been a shepherd and guide to many lost souls since I was trapped here ”

"Trapped?" When Ren heard this word, something solidified in his heart.

"Yes, it's a pity that we are lost. This is the Shadow Spire, the Mirror City, the Mirror City. You can call this place any of these, depending on what you like. It's like the shadow of a shadow, or the reflection cast by a broken mirror, Not perfect. Anyway... welcome, welcome to the City of Mirrors, welcome to hell."

Renn thought about when he was still in the team just now, the streets the team passed through were not perfect, and every building seemed to be hanging at the wrong angle. Even the shadows have a jagged quality, as if something has twisted them all out of shape.

As he went, he discovered more strange things. It seemed to him that the sky was heaving, and will-o'-the-wisps danced in the nooks and crannies of the stone, casting a pale, grave-green light on everything. Water cascades from unseen aqueducts in murky rivulets, or gushes from shattered cisterns and floods collapsed areas.

A damp mist hung over everything, and seemed to grow thicker as he moved through it. He caught a vague glimpse of low, thin figures moving around him, but he heard nothing but the harsh sound of feet on stone.

"What are they? They don't look like any undead I've ever killed."

"That's because they're not, the undead are nothing more than savage corpses animated by the whims of the necromancer or death magic. They're all instinct and hunger, unconscious. These creatures were, and are, not dead, Because they're denied death, and instead they just... rot? With each passing day, they lose a little bit of themselves.

Maybe... these people refuse to die. Every time they kill a person, three shadows seem to come back. Within days, hundreds turned into thousands, and a plague swept through the city, so the city's warriors spent a long time hunting for their own bodies to lay to rest.

Maybe...who knows? One day most of them disappeared, devoured as suddenly as they had appeared. There is another mystery in such a city. Just like us, we are enigmas, you and me, lost in history and lost in this place while the world continues to function without us. " Zuvas patted his chest at the end.

"I'm not a mystery, I know who I am!"

"Yes, but maybe that can be corrected?"

"You haven't explained why you're looking for me, or how you knew I'd be there, who are you? You forgot to introduce yourself, and why do you speak Elsarian?"

"I introduced you when I met you. My name is Zuvas. After I got this name, I understood a lot, including the Elsalin language you spoke."

"Zuvas...what kind of name is this? What kind of bullshit name is this?"

"In the near future, you will know who I am, I promise." Facing Ren's deliberate irritation, Zuvas just smiled softly.

"So, am I your prisoner?"

"No!" Zuvas responded with a firm tone.

"Whose prisoner am I then? The dead? Are you a slave? Has the god you serve abandoned you to the mercy of these corpses?"

"I stand where I choose, friend. No man or god commands me, but I am in control only when it suits me." Zuvas glanced at Renn, who sounded like he was smiling.

"What now?" Ren wanted to smash the Chaos Warrior's grinning mask with his sword blade to see what was behind the mask, but he restrained himself.

"It is fitting for me to obey our master, and you should do the same. Otherwise, you may find yourself buried prematurely. Perhaps you don't know that this is how they treat prisoners, sealing them up in a large building in the city. In the grave. Imagine…being trapped in a box for eternity.”

"Hmph, I will find a way to kill myself."

"No, you can't, you can't do anything to the dead. We are all dead. We are dead, but not dead. This is an unsatisfactory state for anyone." Zuvas said as he spoke. Cover your chest with your hands.

"You seem content with this madness?"

"I just see the humor in it, a fitting punishment, how ironic to trap those who seek eternal life in an eternal hell. It also makes for strange bedfellows, many servants of God, working towards a common goal And together.”

Renn had no words to respond to Zuvas, but turned his head and spat.

"Are you a slave? Who is your master?"

"I am not a slave, I have no master, I am an independent individual! I have my career, a great career, and I want to write my own chapter."

"In fact, that's the definition of a slave."

A flash of light flashed from Ren's eyes, and he raised the Blade of Reality as a warning.

"I noticed, I'm sorry, friend." Zuvas did not make any move to draw the sword, he smiled and raised his hands.

"We're not friends, we're not friends!"

"Oh, but we'll be friends, we'll be like brothers, you and me. By the way, it's dangerous to go this way, that way."

"Are you trying to keep me away from my team?"

"No, there are a small number of warriors gathered over there, but they are dangerous. Some of them even bear the sign of serving the dark gods."

"Aren't they your friends? What's so scary in such a broken place?" Renne keenly captured the meaning of Zuvas' words. As far as he knew, the Chaos Gods would attack each other. , believers will also, there is a reason why they do not attack each other, and having a common enemy is one of the reasons.

"The Mirror City has been split into a hundred thousand fiefs, each with its own master or mistress. At any given moment, there are more than a dozen battles going on. We must always be vigilant. Those believers are not like me. It's not safe."

"What do you know about gods? You reek of a stench I can't describe. It's not desire or rot, not ambition or blood. But you do serve the Chaos Gods, and I can see the marks on you." Ren didn't In his opinion, it didn't matter which fiefdom he put his energy into. What was important was that he had to return to the team immediately, and then he turned his attention to the Chaos Warriors.

"My friend, you have to remember that there are more than four gods!"

"So you serve the God of Vermin?"

"No, I'm worried that the gods I serve are smaller than that. Maybe you don't know that there are many such gods, lurking on the edge of the soul. Like bonito attached to the belly of a shark, invisibly attached to various realms, Thrive on the flow of emotions,” laughed Zuvas.

“Why serve a small god when a greater god might welcome you?”

"Do we have a choice?"

"No, we are chosen." Renn paused, thinking, and after a moment, he murmured.

"Look, God has chosen you, a spendthrift God, to throw blessings to the wind."

"Watch your words!" Ren roared.

"Sorry, my friend, I didn't mean to offend." Gas stretched out his hand and pushed a broken statue off the base. The statue fell down and fell straight into the courtyard below, breaking into pieces. He pointed at a piece of said the still-intact light-blocking glass disc.

Ren turned around, his reflection staring behind him, his pale face making a snarling motion, contorted with blood loss. For a moment, he thought it was just an illusion. Then, he saw the shadow of a huge hand falling on him and felt something twisted in him.

"Magic!" he blinked, and the image changed, and he murmured as he stared at himself, tracing the familiar lines on his face.

"Yes, this place is full of omens and we are thrown between secrets and mysteries."

"Can you be more specific?"

"My friend, I cannot put it plainly. Every moment casts a shadow, and this shadow in turn comes from a hundred thousand mirrors, each of which engraves in the moment a subtle difference, some not so subtle. All What has happened, will happen or could happen will be played out on the shattered surface of every mirror in this city,” Zuvas gestured with a shrug.

"You're talking crazy."

"I saw myself once, not as I am now, but as I will be in the future, or as I was in the past. It is difficult to tell clearly in this place. Every time there is a death here, there will be a broken mirror, and every fragment is the reflection of the deceased. , not all fragments are the same. Those reflections rise and walk, who can say which one is real and which one is just an illusion? This is not crazy, this is the law of this place, you will see it sooner or later." , Zuvas said looking at Renne.

"You make it sound like this place is beyond the control of the gods."

Zuvas laughed, he always laughed, as if he knew some secret joke.

"Why are you grinning, idiot?" Renn glared at Zuvas.

"Do you think the gods are all-powerful? Do you think their games are merely the quarrels of infants? The power of destruction is eternal, but what is eternity to that which existed before thought, before perception? That which exists before What lurks in the empty space between realms, vast and hungry. Look, look up, where the stars should be, what do you see?"

Ren looked up to the sky, his heart beating violently in his chest. He saw shadows, great shadows, folding back, falling forever upward. The sky was like a mirror surface lit by an open flame, littered with points of light that were not stars but something else, like cracks in glass.

Every once in a while, something would pass through the crack, casting a shadow onto the city below. It was something huge and he couldn't perceive any shape. He looked away, suddenly feeling small, smaller than he had felt in a long time.

A skull the size of a moon, or a moon shaped like a skull, was looking down at him from high in the sky. The moon lacks substance and looks almost like a trick of floating into the shadowy void, but it is there. He realized that the moon was not staring at him, but at the city. He shook his head and tried to ignore the moon, it was the only safe way. When he looked up again, the moon was gone, and he let out a shaky breath.

"There are monsters in the deep, hungry things swimming in the eternal ocean, looking for anything they can devour. The Power of Destruction is just like them, but younger, they are still playing with food."

Ren turned around and swung the blade, Zuvas raised his sword to block. He didn't even notice Zuvas' action of drawing the sword just now. What surprised him even more was that the broken sword in front of him blocked the properties of the Blade of Reality.

"So...are you religious, my friend? I don't mean to offend, I just want to warn you that there are some beings in this place who will offer gifts in exchange for services. If I were you, I wouldn't listen to them. Come on, I I will take you where you want to go and find the person you want to find, not over there, but over here." Zuvas pushed away the blade of reality and spread his hands after putting away the broken sword.

Wren and his so-called best friend walked through a crumbling stone passageway that reeked of mud and old blood. Passages pass beneath the city, through a collapsed underworld that was once a sewer system. Black stagnant water lapped at their legs, and strange glowing pollen floated in the miasmatic air. The stones in the walls moved periodically, spitting out masses of bones into the murky water.

"As you can see, I know you don't like it, and I don't like it either, but it can only be done this way." When he came to the intersection, Zuvas stopped. He observed and whispered to Ren. said.

"I don't like sneaking around in the dark!" Renn looked around. No matter where he turned, the open mouth of the cross passage seemed to greet him. Some were stone arches of various shapes, while others resembled cave entrances, but no matter what they looked like, they didn't look attractive to him, and they all reeked of stench.

Zuvas didn't say anything this time, but looked at Renn with a strange look, as if Renn had made a joke that made him laugh, but he had to hold back his laughter.

"Moving unnoticed suits our purpose. Few people will enter this stinking chaos. Also, keep your voice down, sound travels far in this depth." After a moment, he whispered.

"You act like there are spies around and you need to be wary. I'm not a fool. I know what divination is. Know that some people, if they get the hang of it, can see the future stretching out in front of them like a path in the moonlight." Ren started the exchange again, and this time he took the topic to a different direction.

"What do you think?"

"I think the path you're taking is a winding one and, more importantly, a path that makes no sense."

"Of course, in addition, there are many spies in this city, these maggots sneak into the flesh of the city, listening and observing. All prisons, no matter how big, have to communicate." Zuvas was silent, he was silent for a long time, and finally he said An understatement responded to Ren's sarcasm.

"So, whose spies are we? Or, whose spy are you? Are you a maggot?" Renne, who stepped on something unpleasant, sarcastically said again. In order to prevent falling, he stretched out a hand to support himself, but The walls holding him up crumbled, and bones came flooding back to him. He cursed and struck, cracking several slimy skulls.

"I thought I told you to be gentle." Zuvas, who was walking in front, turned around and said. Renn who met him threw him at his ribs. After he knocked the ribs aside, he responded to Renn's words. , "No, we are not spies. Like I keep telling you, we are friends, be patient."

"Stop nagging, give me what I want, either you die or I die!" Violence trembled in Ren's body, making every nerve in him twitch, and his voice echoed eerily in the tunnel. .

"Quiet, friend. Quiet, this is not the place to talk loudly. Quiet, listen, listen!"

"What is that? More dead people?" Ren was about to say something when he heard the sound of splashing water coming from a nearby passage. He stopped and tilted his head to listen.

"Quiet! We've told them where we are, look!" Zuvas said as he drew his sword.

Something was moving in the dark passage, and a new smell filled the air, a sickly sweet smell like rotting flesh. Something emerged from the darkness, a broken, crooked shape, almost animal-like, but not quite. It was thin and ragged, like a mummy left in muddy water, wearing tattered robes and tarnished jewelry.

Its head hangs at a broken angle, its facial features are withered, and sparse colorless hair is stuck to its scalp. Its eyes and mouth are sewn shut, but it moves extremely quickly. Claw-like hands fumbled at the edge of the passage as it crawled into view.

Renn stopped where he was, without any thought of taking a step towards the monster. The monster's head turned like a bird, as if it was listening. Zuvas stretched out an arm and pointed upward, and he slowly raised his head following Zuvas's guidance.

Two more invisible corpses clung to the ceiling, their heads tilted, listening. Three other corpses emerged from the far passage and scurried along the wall.

He heard more splashing, echoing deep in the tunnel. It sounded like there were dozens of things, all converging on where he was, maybe more. More monsters crawled out of the darkness, clinging to the walls on all fours and gliding in the water.

Zuvas motioned for Renn to stay still, and when one of the monsters approached, Renn barely moved. Even if Zuvas didn't say anything, Ren wouldn't move. He knew that he and Zuvas would never be able to outrun these monsters, and there would only be a dead end if they ran.

One of the monsters found the fallen helmet, picked it up from the water, and then threw the helmet into the water, crushing it easily.

Ren's eyes widened immediately when he saw this scene, and he resisted the thought of taking a breath of air.

Now, there are dozens of monsters in the passage. They are all surrounding Renn. Some are squatting in the water, and some are standing and swaying. Although their movements are different, they are all listening.

The stalemate lasted for a long time, until Renn felt something in the air, a pulsation, like the buzz of insects, as if these blind corpses were searching for something. He looked at Zuvas and saw Zuvas making a gesture. He saw Zuvas holding a stone in one of his hands.

Carefully without disturbing the monsters, Zuvas tossed the stone into a passage, where it bounced, rattled and disappeared into the darkness.

The monsters turned and crawled toward the sound, swarming into the passage, their leathery limbs making a strange rustling sound.

Zuvas silently pointed to a damaged wall. After Ren saw it, he looked towards the passage. After watching the broken figure disappear into the darkness, he followed Zuvas through the gap.

They walked up a rough set of steps covered in a layer of slime. Unlike Zuvas who walked very fast, Renn walked relatively slowly, his feet slipping on the stones. At the top of the steps was a square passage covered with some kind of black mold and obscured by a thick shroud. Zuvas tore off the shroud and the two climbed up to a large room that reeked of stagnant water and rotten wood. More steps awaited them.

"Let's go up." Zuvas said calmly as he gestured.

"What are those?"

"Unpleasant things, hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of them here? Lost souls, driven mad by the city, lost in the darkness. They hunt by sound, and if we fight them, there will be more The monsters were attracted by the noise," Zuvas shrugged and said indifferently.

"Maybe we can keep fighting, but they don't care. They are part of the city, part of the city's hunger. Your arms will eventually get tired, and then they will tear you apart. Many times, we are nothing. We must remain humble, just like... forget it. You should never forget this, Ryan. Now, let's go out." Seeing that Ryan remained silent, Zuvas spoke to himself, and his voice continued to echo in the passage.

"You act like a prophet, and the conspiracy you set up is like a spider weaving a web, one thread after another."

"Friend, I am not a prophet, I don't have that ability." (End of this chapter)