The noisy column moved slowly and clumsily across the Estalian countryside.
Celestine rode a white horse away from the formation and headed toward the distance. Several maids and servants hurriedly followed.
In the grassy field ahead stood a magnificent temple.
At the temple's outer perimeter rose a majestic statue of the goddess wearing a helmet, holding a shield, and pointing a longsword toward the horizon. A soaring eagle perched on her arm.
"Myrmidia…"
The female knight gazed at the grand temple and murmured, unconsciously tugging the reins to guide her horse toward it.
The maids and servants caught up. When they realized the female knight was heading to a Myrmidia temple, they all breathed a sigh of relief.
They were all servants of the Julius family, assigned by Rhine to serve his cousin Celestine Julius. The main reason was fear that she might do something extreme because of her past experiences—such as "suicide."
"My noble lady, if you wish to pay homage to the War Goddess's heroic form, perhaps you could wait until we reach Bilbali Port."
An older servant suggested carefully. "There is a magnificent temple there, second only to those in Magritta and Tilea in the entire Southern Kingdoms."
"Faith does not depend on outward appearance… Peter, I remember you have been to Estalia several times."
Celestine did not turn her head. "Your leg was once injured here… Go back and rest first. Tell Rhine I am fine."
The older servant's eyes reddened.
"Noble Miss Celestine, I never thought you would still remember me… Yes, I have been here several times. Back then people still called me Peter. Now I am 'Old Peter.'"
The servant spoke with deep emotion, wanting to say more, but he could not get the words out. He could only wipe his reddened eyes and follow behind the female knight.
What a kind and beautiful woman. She even remembered a servant she had met many years ago and showed consideration for his old injury.
The people of Bretonnia liked to praise their women as pure, beautiful, and elegant "flowers of the high peaks." In the servant's opinion, among all the noble ladies he had served, only the female knight truly deserved such praise.
The female knight soon reached the temple gates—marble doorframes, walls, flowerbeds, and the chapel.
A squad of warriors loyal only to the War Goddess's faith stood guard here. Two matrons had been waiting outside the gate for some time.
"The leader has been waiting for you for a long time."
One matron skillfully took the horse's reins while the other bowed and invited Celestine into the temple.
"Which leader?"
The female knight frowned slightly, on guard.
"Glorious Leader, High Matriarch Themis."
The female knight stood at the temple entrance, looking up at the dignified and exquisite statue of the War Goddess, and stopped.
"I do not know High Matriarch Themis."
The servants gathered around the female knight. The war guards stood like statues, motionless.
"But I know you, Celestine."
The voice arrived before the person. The matrons bowed and stepped aside. The guards turned, placed hands on their chests, and knelt on one knee in salute.
A woman who seemed to radiate luster walked out of the temple. Her tall figure and waist-length golden hair carried a refreshing fragrance. Behind her, two lines of maids held the long white and gold silk train of her skirt.
Her voluptuous, mature body was bound and outlined by the priestess robes into seductive, alluring curves—full of thick, almost tangible eroticism!
Golden high-heeled sandals, a robe slit on both sides, and a tight top. Her breasts and plump buttocks swayed left and right with every movement. She looked nothing like a priestess and more like a high-class courtesan carefully dressed for a costume ball!
Celestine furrowed her brow. Starting from the high heels on her feet, she carefully examined the woman from bottom to top, finally stopping her gaze on that mature, beautiful, gentle face that seemed to carry a faint, elusive smile.
"You don't look like a Myrmidia nun at all, Therese."
"More like a priestess of the Reveler's cult."
The female knight looked at the highly erotic high priestess and spoke with a frown.
The two stood face to face. Celestine truly looked like a handsome knight with a boyish appearance. The other woman's pervasive temptation and feminine charm radiating everywhere made it hard for the opposite sex to resist. The servants all lowered their heads, not daring to look directly at the high matriarch's body for fear of losing composure and being punished.
"Hmph!"
The high matriarch snorted, removed the tall polygonal headdress—along with the golden wig attached inside—and tossed it to a waiting matron.
She then tightened the sash of her robe, took a set of golden light breastplate from the wall and put it on to cover her upper body's tempting flesh. She kicked off the high-heeled sandals and changed into golden boots brought by the maids. The side-slit robe was also taken from the maids' hands and wrapped around her long, fair legs.
In an instant, she transformed from a seductive, erotic goddess who could easily develop into an R18 scene—making people suspect she had fallen to Slaanesh—into the dignified and awe-inspiring incarnation of the goddess herself.
"These garments are the Goddess's command… to develop faith in more domains."
High Matriarch Themis stepped forward and casually put an arm around the female knight's shoulder, pulling her inside.
"If you ask me, those cowards and fossils in Magritta's Eyrie don't dare defy the Goddess's will, yet they're afraid of damaging their own prestige and reputation, so they dumped the matter onto Bilbali. They even learned something from the Imperials… a pilot project. Yes, that's the word."
The high matriarch had already switched between three different temperaments in a short time—mature and erotic, dignified and solemn, then completely informal. She hugged Celestine and kept complaining to her:
"They dumped the matter onto Bilbali, and those guys are the same old fossils, passing it further down until it finally landed on my convent."
Her beautiful face twisted with anger. She clenched her fist and gestured in front of her.
"My place only gets occasional pilgrims and commoners coming to worship once every year or so. It has almost no effect. Last time a group of questing knights came. When I preached to them using the version sent from Magritta—that Myrmidia bears responsibilities and incarnations of love, beauty, and happiness across the Southern Kingdoms—those blockheads actually dared to draw their swords on me!"
The high matriarch looked furious, not like a nun at all but more like a dockside gang boss in Altdorf fighting over territory.
"I beat them up, hung them outside the chapel behind the temple, made them clean the stables, pull weeds, and scrub the toilets. I kept them for two weeks before letting them go."
"Those brats ran to Bilbali and accused me before the Grand Master of the War Cult of being corrupted, having fallen to Slaanesh, and tampering with Myrmidia's scriptures… Fuck (censored)!"
"Don't let me meet them again. I swear to the Goddess, I will (censored) them. I will strip them naked and throw them into Bilbali's wrestling pit!"
Her coarse language and dirty jokes were almost too much even for the female knight. Celestine opened her mouth several times but stopped. The high matriarch finally spat out a breath of turbid air, still fuming with resentment.
"Never mind. We can talk about those brats later." The high matriarch pursed her lips, stopped walking, looked straight into Celestine's eyes, and said seriously:
"Celestine, you are in big trouble."
"Your disappearance was manipulated… I have been staying in the convent, but for the past half year I never heard any news about you. Until this time, when the Goddess sent down an oracle."
The high matriarch's expression turned grave. She tightly held Celestine's hands, her eyes filled with pity.
"The Goddess believes this is a scheme of the Dark Gods."
"That… that child…" The high matriarch hesitated for a moment, then steeled herself and said: "That child is a disaster. The Goddess commands me: eliminate him at all costs!"
"You don't need to worry…" Seeing the female knight's wary expression, the high matriarch said frankly: "The followers of the War Eagle are spread across the world. It is easy for us to learn about this matter."
"The current problem is that child."
Celestine remained silent.
The female knight felt deeply conflicted. Apart from blood ties, she and the child born from her belly had almost no other connection—perhaps not even the blood tie was certain. Besides the first time, there was nothing else. Yet he had killed the Beastlord and freed her. However, the female knight also knew that the child, who had received blessings from four evil powers while still in the womb, would bring immense darkness to the mortal world. For reasons of faith, faction, and many others, they were natural mortal enemies.
Although the current mortal world was not as sensitive to any sign of corruption as before the Great War—when people were like frightened birds, and witch hunters and inquisitors could burn and purify entire villages or execute suspected Chaos criminals without trial.
Although sometimes they could be astonishingly slow, turning a blind eye to the Skaven Under-Empire only three feet away, from beginning to end the hostility between Chaos and the lives of Order had never stopped. The current neglect was mostly due to complacency toward the weakened Chaos forces that could no longer stir up major waves or pose a real threat.
The high matriarch was silent for a moment, then continued: "I know that no matter the method, asking a mother to kill her own child…" She smiled charmingly and joked: "We are not the extreme madmen of the Flagellant sect in the Sigmarite Church."
Even though her old friend opposite her was a devout Sigmarite believer, the high matriarch still did not forget to take a jab at the rival faith.
"To purge evil, in the name of the Goddess I have gathered a group of exceptionally talented and capable adventurers across Estalia. They will form an extremely elite witch hunter band."
"Among them are powerful mages who studied at the White Tower and master the four Winds of Magic; legendary warriors who participated in several knightly expeditions and slew several greenskin warlords; a ranger hero raised by Wood Elves who earned the title of Waystalker as a human and achieved great deeds in Lustria; and finally, Myrmidia's own Chosen Champion, the next Silver Hand Paladin of the Order of the Blazing Sun!"
"They will venture deep into the Pina Forest, dispel the darkness, and bring light."
She leaned close to the female knight's ear. Her plump, golden-painted red lips brushed against Celestine's earlobe.
"And they will also light up your future, Celestine."