CHAPTER 2
"Sound the horns! The warbeasts of Wormachism are here! The beasts of terror, shatter them under hoof and claw!"
"Aye dogs! Dogs, sons of Anubisath! Here we defend our brothers under a pact long ago made!"
"Lashers! Put out that fire! Stand ready, now! Ready your whips!"
"Bowmen of the Legions of God! Stand ready! Prepare the guns! Load them!"
"Legionmen! Pikes! Pike and shield!"
"Stand ready, at the gate!"
"The hour is nigh!"
"Sound the bells!"
And then a horn like Death shook the walls. The cold wind blasted and thunder heaved! Heave, the march, shake the earthen and crush them under the black march of the foul hoofs of drums and wings! Bombs and guns, pierce their hearts, Death is watching, make it proud or repent eternally! Plague eat their flesh, poison their foodstuffs, make their children ill! Aye, sons of Karnliege under my dark wing rape and pillage the city of men! Make the proud walls groan and tremble! Plunge into their flesh and blood, eat away the cold flesh! Take their gold and do not share, do whatever your heart desires!
The Army of the Black Death is here!
The banner is wrung high. The body of one of their generals, you presume, lay before it and the gates. A blast of thunder rings; it echoes through the mouth. You take the gong-hammer and raise it above your head. "Let it begin!" shouts the general.
The guns breathe backward, disjointed, and with a blasting noise, you hear, and see then the full might of Modoc! The earth erupts into flesh and blood, dust and bone, hordes of men turned into mist! The sound, what is this sound? It is like a giant bug buzzing inside the inner chambers of your brain! By Ishtar! And then it is over?
"Again, load again! Do not let even one of those things touch the wall!" you hear. Will this be over sooner than expected?
You hear on your left ear:
"Watch out!"
Not even a minute after the battle has started! Thousands, hundreds of thousands dead! And the outer wall, broken! You flee in shock down the causeway. Fire? Fire has taken over!
"Keep firing!"
"What is going on up there?"
"A fire! A molten ball of fire has been thrown! They have a sorcerer!"