Throne of Magical Arcana

A gloomy ancient castle stands on the edge of the lake floating Heping, with a spire like a javelin in the style of a rich ancient magic empire.

Harold Steel Hammer, carrying a bag of ore, walked towards the castle's warehouse with heavy steps and slow movements.

As a dwarf who was not yet a teenager, he was not like the elders with strong muscles that wielded huge hammers like toying with toys. Such a bag of ore was really too heavy for him.

However, Harold does not have any complaints about the heavy physical labor, at least he can survive, at least not to be the food of the vampire masters like the elaborate dwarves who were selected.

This is the castle of Vlad Cecil, the "Great Blood Count", who controls hundreds of dwarf villages around him, chooses "pure blood and flesh" from them as food, and drives the remaining slaves in Working in mines and castles, he mined and smelted the Nidamum gold unique to the Night Plateau, as well as the rare Caramo fine iron and Mithril.

The dwarves seem to be destined from birth, either to become food or to die early after squeezing the power in a clean body. The landscape of their lives is only the part that is combined to reproduce the offspring.

Although he never left the village where he was born and the castle of Earl Vlad, Harold “heard” whether it was the desolate south where he is now, or the northern part of the horror reputation, the dwarves in other parts of the plateau, survive The situation is like this, the pain continues numbly.

Thinking of this, Harold raised his head, looking up at the darkness that always hung over the plateau, looking up at the bright and bright constellation, and his heart was slightly dazed and sad:

"Does my life go miserably along such a fixed track, without seeing the slightest hope, can our dwarf family never recover the glory of ancient times?"

A snap, sharp pain came from Harold's face, and a whip that oozed blood suddenly appeared on his left face, and stretched across the dwarf's unique big nose to the right.

"Come on, what a daze!" Came the vicious voice, and the shadow of the leather whip still echoed in front of him.

Yes, the fate of the dwarves is not only two, but they can also abandon their ancestors, please vampires like a dog, become their blood servants, and instead take care of their companions.

How can a self-proclaimed elegant and noble vampire manage the dirty miners and coolies by himself, naturally need a servant to do the cumbersome things, but every vampire will consume his own source of blood in the first embrace, if the weak vampire develops more descendants , Itself will decay ahead of time, so even high-level vampires are not willing to arbitrarily give birth to offspring.

Moreover, the vampires are very self-respected and regard most of the lives of other tribes as dirty and humble low creatures. They are not very valued or liked. It is impossible to waste the source of blood to transform them into blood tribes. In a small area, there is a large amount of blood servants who have sucked blood without dying, like puppets, who obey orders.

As a blood servant, the strength is almost a formal knight, but it will never be improved. The life span is only one tenth of that of the master, and it will never be able to rebel against the master, and even the idea of ​​rebellion will never appear.

Harold glanced at the dwarf holding a leather whip and wearing gorgeous clothes next to him, lowering his eyes to prevent the hate and anger in his eyes from being discovered by him: "Yes, Butler Wells."

This abominable traitor, I do n’t know how many siblings have reported and died, and he is obviously just a supervisor, but he likes to be called a housekeeper. When the real vampire housekeeper Galata appears, he wants to kneel on the ground and kiss each other ’s shoes. tip.

The red-headed dwarf Wells shaved his beard with pride because his owner Vlad hated his beard quite well, revealing a pitted face. At this time, Harold was "handsome" Brown bearded, bored inwardly, waved his right hand and gave him a whip again:

"What was thinking just now? The dwarf doesn't need to think! Do you understand? I ask you to understand? Dirty and dirty bastard dwarf!"

He seems to have forgotten that he is also a dwarf, and completely regards himself as a noble blood servant that is only slightly worse than the orthodox blood family.

"Understood, Wells' housekeeper." Harold's hands holding the ore bag burst into blue.

"Go!" Wells did not dare to delay the progress, so as not to be scolded by the housekeeper Mr. Galata.

As Harold walked a few steps, Wells ’s vicious and vicious voice became very flattering: "Good afternoon, Mrs. Tess, Mr. Galata, please go here. It is full of ore powder, very messy, and stench. The dwarf will hit you. "

Even without looking back, Harold could imagine Wells stooping and bowing his head to please, and the tall vampire butler Galata's meticulous style-he always wears a black formal dress and always wears a neat bow tie.

And Madame Tess must be that beautiful and voluptuous, with long blond hair, slender slender proportions, and green eyes like lake water. She had not changed since she was first embraced by Count Vlad as a vampire.

The thought of Mrs. Tess, Harold was very heartbroken and sad. She was the most beautiful female dwarf in the hundreds of villages nearby. She was the lover she admired in her dream. Unfortunately, she was chosen by Earl Vlad and became him Vampire bride.

The cool wind of the plateau blew, Harold buried his head and carried the ore bag slowly forward, a voice like a bird song came from behind: "Intensify smelting ore, don't let them lazy."

"Pay attention to the investigation. Some dwarves who stole ran to form a rebel army, and they could not be allowed to destroy the mine."

…………

It was busy until the position of the constellation changed, and it was no different from the previous evening. Harold ended the heavy labor and got a chance to breathe, and then took the rations-two black breads left the castle and went to the nearby village Back home.

Walking, Harold suddenly looked around with vigilance, and when he saw no one nearby, his expression immediately became excited, and he turned into a remote road, carrying darkness and starlight, and hurried forward.

After walking for about ten minutes, passing through a few sparse black "wind poplar" forests, Harold saw an ordinary boulder.

He looked around again, and then walked carefully behind the boulder, tapping lightly on the stone face.

"Steam is supreme." The strange dwarf word came out of his mouth, like a spell, but without any mental power.

The sound had just disappeared, and a gap was suddenly cracked in the boulder, as if a door had been opened. A gray-faced dwarf stretched his head and looked around, then waved his hand: "Come in, Harold."

Harold swiftly entered, watching the dwarf close the stone door and lock it back, throwing a piece of black bread to him: "Uncle Warren, I will go down first."

"Go ahead, the elder elder is waiting for you, my child." Warren caught the brown bread and drank the water, his teeth biting excellently, as if he had been hungry for a long time.

Harold knew that Uncle Warren, the dwarf rebels hiding under the ground, lacked food for a long time, so this was the case, so he shook his head inexplicably and walked down the channel to the depths of the ground.

While drinking the clean water that he carried with him and eating black bread, he was deeply shocked by the magnificent underground palace built by his ancestors:

"Why are such great ancestors defeated by vampires?"

"Aren't they rejected by the gods?"

There are many murals carved on the stone bricks on both sides, there are overwhelming airships, steam engine ships sailing on the ocean, horror cannons bombarded by dragons, steam trains running on the plains ... Harold has already seen Many times these murals, but every time I ca n’t help but feel excited, so he loves to listen to the elder Augustus • Broken Heart tells the story of the steam age, thinking about the ancestor ’s brilliant civilization, it seems that just thinking about it, life is full Hope, inherited glory.

At the end of the passage, there is a sacrificial hall, on both sides of which are rows of huts. The roar of steam keeps coming from inside. A strong dwarf is driving the steam sledge hammer to forge weapons.

"Harold, are you here?" A dwarf with a long white beard gave Harold a slight jaw, then looked at him with his eyes and sighed softly: "Unfortunately our civilization has been lost, We ca n’t make complicated steam engines, cannons, rifles, we can only build sharper swords and axes. But this can only deal with blood servants, there is no way to take vampires, let alone the north where the scary vampires are located. "

His tone is vicissitudes and bleak.

"Big Elder ..." Several "high-level" men who were dressed in simple but obscurely higher status than other dwarfs stopped, how could they create a desperate atmosphere inside the resistance.

The elder Augustus smiled calmly and calmly: "Milna, Quiggins ... We must let the people who follow us understand our situation, this is a road that can't see a little hope, it is kneeling numbly. To survive, to defend the glory of the ancestors with blood, to die like a real dwarf, you must make your own choice. "

"Steam is supreme!" The small houses on both sides suddenly roared. "Anyway, it is destined to die in pain!"

Sharing food, Augustus asked Harold about the castle ’s recent movements. They chose Count Vlad ’s site to hide because they heard that he had been traumatized by “magic magic” in a war in the early years, and he has not fully recovered. , You need to sleep often to keep yourself from decay.

"... Mrs. Tess is instructing the blood servants to look for you ..." Harold told the Augustus hopefully after reporting only a little news he knew: "Great elder, can you tell me more about ancient steam Civilized thing? "

The pretty young female dwarf Milna is also full of expectations. Listening to the stories of the elders telling the past is a rare "light" in the difficult life of the resistance.

"... We dwarves once ruled the vast land, in the endless oceanic estuaries, on the Negering River, in countless prosperous places, there were huge cities we built ... Chimneys made of steel like forests Towering, spitting billowing black smoke, sometimes even blocking the sun, making the day darker ... "

"... There are huge steam trains running between cities, and it only takes a few hours from here to the north ... Every dwarf can get enough food and use various mechanical products, such as lifting people to the top of the building. Steam lifts, such as steam boilers that always have hot water to bathe you ... "

"... The great dwarf warriors carried high-pressure steam packs, equipped with mechanical arms, carrying steam rifles, and opened up dangerous fields ... Steam engine ships sailed on the ocean, and the huge barrels made the enemies surrender ..."

Although I do n’t know much about the daytime and the sunshine, it does n’t prevent Harold, Milna, and other dwarves from listening to it with interest. That ’s their dream heaven.

Combined with the mural painting, the city of steam machinery came to their minds so vividly.

Harold clenched his fists tightly and vowed to one day rebuild such a dwarf city.

When telling this, Augustus' expression was full of pride and longing, and the folds of petals on his face seemed to bloom.

"Okay, let's talk about it today. We have time to worship the steam god, the great life and death master." Augustus got up and walked to the center of the hall, where there was an altar with strange patterns.

"Great elder, is it really useful?" Milna, the linen-haired girl, asked in doubt.

Augustus glared at her, and said sternly: "Did we find the ancestors' ritual to worship the gods when we unearthed the ruins? They are so powerful, so smart, how can they do useless things? To think that our civilization will be destroyed must be because we neglected the steam god and was abandoned by him, so we need to be more religious to get his favor again. "

"Yes, elder." In this desperate situation, any chance can make the dwarves light the torches of hope.

Therefore, including Harold, all the dwarves gathered in front of the altar, followed the elders in strange gestures and movements, and danced inexplicably.

"Great steam god, your devout servant prays to you."