They arranged the corpses into an eight-pointed star.
Al hesitated about who to sacrifice to this time.
In terms of combat power, he had the Bloodmother's Chosen centaur girl and himself—the commander who had personally slain Beastlord Zharkhan (big lie). If he could unlock the technology to tame trolls, a monster legion would also take shape. So combat strength wasn't the main focus.
This wasn't a game where even if only one Champion or Grail Knight remained, you could replenish units after two turns. In reality, every beastman who died would make Al's heart ache. The cubs needed at least two to three years to reach adulthood, even with the beastmen's rapid growth trait.
The urgent priority was still the population problem.
The New Four Gods had all left their marks on Al. The Bloodmother's reversed Khorne symbol was on the inside of his arm, the All-Knowing Eye on his forehead, the Loving Mother's ouroboros on his lower abdomen… and the Reveler's mark was in the most embarrassing spot—right below his waist.
It looked strange too—purple, like a winged heart.
Fuck!
This is a fucking lewd crest, isn't it?!
It definitely is!
Al strongly suspected the Reveler had directly borrowed it after looking into his memories.
Fortunately, these marks could normally be hidden. The one on his private area wouldn't usually be seen by others. The beastmen might not understand it, but if they ever discovered it someday… "The Beastlord has a tattoo on his ass… damn."
Al mentally noted it down: if he ever got the chance, he'd ask the Reveler if it could be changed.
That said, population was directly linked to reproduction, and among the New Four Gods, only two were connected to the domain of fertility.
The Loving Mother and the Reveler.
The Loving Mother was the only one among the New Four Gods he hadn't met yet. She was quite mysterious, and her domain involved plagues and disease, which Al instinctively felt repulsed by.
It wasn't outright disgust. As long as the blessing she gave wasn't too "Saya no Uta," he could accept it.
So the answer was…
He pressed his palm onto the eight-pointed star and placed his other hand behind his back onto the mark below his waist.
At the same time, he called out in his heart:
"Mommy."
After all, he had never met the Loving Mother to confirm their mother-son bond. She was too mysterious. It felt safer to go through Reveler Mommy.
The rift appeared. The suction force came.
The sacrificial corpses were sucked in one after another, vanishing from the mortal world.
This time there was no Winds of Chaos, nor did a portal open to send hundreds or thousands of Chaos armies.
After devouring the offerings, the rift closed, then opened again.
A pitch-black stone was tossed out by a hand and smacked straight into Al's upturned, expectant face.
Al was stunned.
The watching beastmen were also stunned. After a pause, the beastman captains he had personally appointed rushed over and helped the dazed Al to his feet.
"Chief… chief!"
"Leader!"
"Beastlord!"
Al pushed their hands away, picked up the culprit, and stared longingly at the rift.
But there was no follow-up. The rift closed and dissolved into vanishing fragments.
Al gripped the stone tighter and tighter. His head hurt—both physically and mentally.
His fists hardened!
I wanted population, and you throw a broken stone at my head that can only…
Al took a deep breath and temporarily set the headache aside. First, he would study what use this stone-like thing had.
Reveler Mommy didn't flirt or whisper sweet nothings this time like before. She simply sent over a stream of information and then went silent. He didn't know if there was trouble in the Realm of Chaos.
Al hadn't finished receiving the information yet. His heart filled with unease as he speculated:
Could it be that the New Four Gods already got gg before the End Times even started?
Should I consider confessing to the Dragon Emperor Sigmar and finding a way out?
Taking a ship from Estalia to Cathay seems pretty far…
Forget it. First, let's see what my sky-fallen mom sent me…
"Fuck!"
This stone thing—is it a Daemonstone?
Al had people build a new room. He stood outside it, face pale.
The damn stone had sucked quite a lot of his blood before it could even be used.
Outside the room, the pregnant female beastmen he had summoned stood in a line, whispering among themselves.
He had said it was a blessing, yet no one… forget it. If it were me, I wouldn't believe it either.
Al complained inwardly. A Beastlord who was tangled up with Chaos (referring to being the son of an evil god and the Eternal Champion) suddenly summons all the pregnant women one day, tells them to cut their hands and touch a weird stone, and claims it's a divine blessing… yeah right, it obviously looks like some evil ritual.
Al could have used force or threats to make the pregnant women do it, but that was too inhumane. It would make him no different from the Slaanesh Chosen on the other side. He couldn't do it.
So he personally tried to persuade a group of big sister and auntie beastmen with kind words.
Mainly because—if the New Four Gods weren't lying to him—this stone was truly a treasure.
Its prototype, or rather its predecessor, was a Mother of Fertility.
Originally a Dark Elf who fell into Slaanesh worship and started wild orgies with beastmen, giving birth to countless chaos-tainted beast cubs. She was hunted down by the Witch-King's guards. Already twisted and bloated, the Mother of Fertility was ambushed by a group of Skaven assassins during her escape. Both the beastmen and pursuers were wiped out, but the ratmen didn't kill her.
Perhaps because her grotesque form reminded them of their own mothers' warmth?
The ratmen delivered her to the Clan Moulder of the Thirteen Lords, famous for fleshcrafting. There, the rats used their bio-black tech to fuse the Mother of Fertility with a Broodmother.
The two formed a bizarre symbiotic relationship. The specific appearance was very Lovecraftian. Then she began explosive breeding. While other Broodmothers needed time between litters, the Mother of Fertility ran a production line.
After the End Times and the Great Skaven Failure, they retreated to Lustria. On the way, this Mother of Fertility was intercepted by four goddesses who descended from the heavens to bring love and justice to the world. They dragged her into the Realm of Chaos and "purified" her violently (physically), extracting the power of fertility and reproduction she contained.
Finally, it became this stone.
It could also be called the Stone of Fertility and Gestation.
As for what happened to the Mother of Fertility, Al didn't dare think about it or ask.
The New Four Gods spent considerable effort completely purifying it, then refined its most important ability and sent it over.
Bestowal.
Bestowal of bloodline, bestowal of inheritance.
Simply put, Al fed the Stone of Gestation with his blood and… (censored), then through this stone, he could pass on his Eternal Champion genes along with the Four Gods' blessings to the fetus, altering their attributes during gestation.
They would become Divine Beastmen (Thunderforged Legion)!
The Four Gods' blessings and the Eternal Champion's bloodline would flow and extend through them. From birth, they would be stronger, larger, faster, and smarter than their kin, with even faster growth. They could walk in three days, run in a week, climb trees and catch birds in a month.
In half a year they would become young men, in one year they could carry spears onto the battlefield, and then…
In four to five years they would retire honorably.
Yes, their lifespans were very short. This flaw easily reminded people of a certain golden giant, the Fifth Chaos God, the Cold Sun, and the system he implemented during his unification of Terra.
But it didn't matter. Given the frequency and intensity of wars in the Old World, those old veterans who survived multiple campaigns already made people suspect GW was born from the void. So the short lifespan didn't seem that important.
"Life is the currency of the Beastlord. Use it wisely!"
Most of the Thunderforged, the Divine… Al's Sons! born through this "bestowal" method would have the flaws of short lifespan and sterile reproduction systems.
They had short lives and could not reproduce, but they grew at explosive speed and possessed far greater strength than their kin!
As extremely excellent warriors and additions to Al's legions.
As the first batch of Al's Sons, they received special treatment.
The first-generation Al's Sons still could not reproduce, but their lifespan and strength would be relatively longer, making them suitable for command and leadership positions. They would assist their little daddy Al in expanding territory and conquering under the banner of the New Four Gods.
Beastmen usually gave birth to two to three cubs per litter, varying by subspecies. The later Al's Sons could at least maintain three years of peak condition. Such warriors could guarantee the prosperity of a family in the past. A group of them could ensure the long-term flourishing of an entire tribe.
It was equivalent to trading the early death (relatively speaking) of one litter for the tribe's future and safer, better growth for the following generations.
Besides, this was only the first batch.
Of course, Al didn't reveal the detailed situation. He only mentioned that the first batch would receive additional blessings.
After much persuasion, a strong pregnant minotaur woman finally stepped forward first.
She passed by Al and said in a deep, rumbling voice: "The shaman told us to trust the Beastlord's leadership."
"You led us out of the human encirclement. I believe in you."
She took a small knife from her waist—relative to her minotaur size, it was basically a shortsword in Al's hand—cut across her palm, then walked into the room and pressed her hand onto the stone.
A suction force came from the Stone of Gestation, locking the minotaur woman's hand tightly. It then unlocked the taboos and restrictions within Al's blood and injected that power into the fetus.
The rest of the development would happen inside the mother's womb.
When they were born, the first batch of Al's Sons would be complete.
Al looked at the trusting gaze of the minotaur woman. His expression grew solemn and dignified.
"I swear in the name of the four mothers—I will not betray any of your trust."
With a leader, the rest became much easier. Roughly thirteen pregnant women followed one after another. Al watched with a racing heart and quickly called people over to help stop the bleeding, afraid tetanus would harm these precious pregnant women.
He didn't know if tetanus existed in this world, but one could never be too careful with pregnant women and children.
The stone had shrunk several sizes. The blood Al had poured into it seemed almost used up. What remained was waiting—and the need for more pregnant women.
Transforming already-born cubs consumed far more, and Al couldn't bring himself to rob those lively lives similar to his own of their naturally longer lifespans just to turn them into weapons of war.
He hoped these first-generation "Al's Sons" would bring him pleasant surprises.
Wait a minute!
The urgent population problem still hadn't been solved!
Al suddenly snapped back to reality.
The first batch of Al's Sons would take at least half a year from birth to maturity. He couldn't spend those six months leading a tribe of less than a thousand—half of whom were old, weak, sick, young, or disabled—on a Pina Forest development plan where every death was a painful loss.
He flipped through the New Four Gods' information again and was shocked.
There was another way?